Guidance
by Wulver
Summary: Of course, he would go to Derek for help. Even after six years Scott still saw him as his 'big brother'. A story where trust was never an issue for a Beta and his little brother. NOT SLASH
1. Second Chance

**So…hope you enjoy?**

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2005

"I'm sorry, Mr. Hale, there is simply no way I can give you an extension on your final report."

'_Fuck!'_

Derek had royally screwed himself over this time. He had known the assignment had been due soon but had ignored it in favor of spending more time with the most awesome girl in the world, Kate Argent. Now the young man was not the greatest scholar in the US but he certainly wasn't a pot-smoking, lazy bum like some of the kids in his class. He was a solid Bs and high Cs student with a knack for turning in almost all his work in on time. Then Laura, his older sister, brought home a new friend from school who had just moved into town.

Kate was like no one he had ever met.

Beautiful beyond words and a wild spirit that was completely untamable.

It was all he could do to stop from transitioning the first time he saw her. That seemed to stop happening the more time he was around her. But that was also a problem. The more time he spent with the wonderful Kate Argent, the less time he wanted to spend doing other things. Then one day it was too much and, in the heat of a moment, he pulled her into a long, hard kiss before pulling back and asking her out on a date. The teen would remember that moment forever as it was one of the few times he ever made her truly blush and it was the first time she said yes to a date with him.

Of course, all of that led him to where he was possibly about to fail his freshman year.

"Please, Mrs. Leary, are you absolutely sure there is no way I can fix this?" Derek practically begged.

His teacher seemed to consider him a moment before a small smile spread across her face. "There is one way I can let you pass my class. A sort of extra credit if you are willing to put in the time and effort." The Hale boy did a victory dance in his mind before quickly agreeing to do anything he needed too. She seemed happy to hear that as she opened a draw to her desk and pulled out some kind of sign-up sheet.

A confused look crossed his face as he read the bold lettering across the top.

"Big Brothers, Big Sisters Program?"

Mrs. Leary nodded.

"Yes, I just so happen to be member of the local one and it is sad to say we are seriously lacking in volunteers this year. So I'm going to make you a deal. An old student of mine has just gone through a very sudden divorce and her son has been taking it pretty hard. Now grades aren't set in stone until the middle of July, Derek. That is close to two months from now. If I see a significant improvement on your little brother's behalf, I'll pass you. Do we have an agreement?"

The woman gave her normally good natured student a strange look as his face seemed to harden slightly.

What Mrs. Leary was not privy to was the war going on in Derek's mind. His inner wolf was trying to claw its way to the surface in rage. To him and his family, family was pack and pack never abandoned each other. The mere idea of his own father, hell any member of his family from his oldest cousin, Sasha who was leaving for college soon to his Uncle Peter who still had not found a mate yet, leaving and never coming back nearly made him physically ill. A family without an 'Alpha' was weakened and unable to protect itself from attack. His inner wolf seemed to rein in its anger as he came to a decision. The Hale boy would do everything in his power to help.

"I'll do it."

The teacher could feel her smile widen. This was the kind of thing that made the young man in front of her one of her favorite students in a long time.

"Excellent!" the woman exclaimed as she began gather her things together to leave for the day. "Now with a week of school left, you will only be meeting with Scott McCall in the afternoons and then when summer starts you can setup a schedule that works best for you. There is a minimum time you must spend with your 'sibling' so do think carefully about it."

"You don't have to worry. I promise you won't regret this."

'_No, I don't think I shall,' _thought Mrs. Leary as she watched him leave.

Derek immediately headed for his sister's car as soon as he left the room. To his surprise, Kate was chatting away with Laura when he finally got to the vehicle. The next moment, the Argent was in his arms and a quick kiss had whatever remaining anger he had dissipating into nothing.

"So? What's the verdict, Bite Size?" Laura asked when her little brother finally stopped kissing her friend.

The teen glared at his sister for the nickname before telling her it was a no go on an extension.

"The Old Man is gonna have your hide for this…"

0-0-0-0-0

The next afternoon saw Derek sitting in the Beacon Hills Elementary principal's office, his leg bouncing a mile a minute as he went over what had happened when he got home the day before.

_To say his parents were not pleased with him was a bit of an understatement, though his dad more than his mom. He was pretty sure his father would have fully wolfed out if not for his mother, whose glowing eyes still meant he was in a whole mess of trouble. The teen had gotten off pretty easy in the fact that all he really lost was car privileges and that he had to do whatever it took to make sure he passed. His parents seemed to calm down a little when they found out everything was taken care. Then they had to ask him how._

_And so Derek had to tell them about the program and young Scott McCall, which, in a house full of werewolves, was heard by all._

_Rage permeated the house from the Hale men while the motherly urge to protect rolled off from the Hale women in waves._

His mental flashback ended abruptly as the final bell rang.

Mrs. Leary had told him that at the end of the elementary school's day, to head for the gym where he would meet Scott and his mom. The trek to the gym was rather funny as each kid he passed seemed to get smaller and smaller. The idea that the six foot tall teen was ever that small just seemed ridiculous to him.

0-0-0-0-0

Melissa McCall had to force her eyes stay open as they continued to slowly droop from the little to no sleep she been having recently. Between her spastic schedules as of late, taking care of Scott, and her husband…

She had to cover her mouth to choke back a sob as the tears started to flow.

The woman would never truly understand what happened with him. It was like one moment he loved them and the next they were sitting down with Scott telling him his dad was leaving. "Don't cry, Mom. He's not worth it. We'll be happier without him." Melissa slowly looked up at her son and gave a small grin. He was her one and only light in the world when everything else seemed bleak.

That was why she followed her old teacher's advice when she told her about her program. Her son had closed himself off from everyone but her. Not even the wacky antics of his best friend, Stiles, could pull him back. Whoever was slated to help him would have their work cut out for them. The sound of boots echoing in the gym alerted her to a new presence.

The young man walking towards them was not like anything she had expected. Minus the white shirt, everything else covering his body was black. Add that to his already large and imposing build for a fifteen-nearly-sixteen year old and Melissa had to stop herself from protectively pushing Scott behind her. The only thing stopping her from picking up her son and running was the strangely calming smile on his face.

Derek was pretty sure he was going to like this Scott McCall quite a bit as the boy moved from behind his mother to stand between them as he got closer. The wolf-man had heard the child's declaration that they should not even think of his father and that they would be happy with or without him. That combined with the look in his eyes told him that no harm would come to his pack. The boy had the heart of a wolf and that was something a werewolf could truly admire.

The Hale's grin widened slightly.

'_Definitely going to like this kid.'_

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**Hope you enjoyed**

**Now to those who caught it, yes Derek is nearly 16 and just finishing his Freshman year of high school. How is that possible? Because I am using Tyler Hoechlin's actual birthday which is Sept. 11 and 10 days passed the deadline for starting school when he was little. Thus he was actually a little over a month from being 7 when he started kindergarten.**


	2. Meeting Crosses

**So I wasn't expecting so much feedback so quickly so thank you to all those who read, reviewed, favorited or anything like that.**

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"Hi, Mrs. McCall," greeted the ever confident beta as he finally reached the pair. Holding out his hand he said, "I'm Derek Hale."

Melissa gave the young man a once over again before accepting his handshake.

"Melissa. And this," she gave her son a pat on the shoulder and a small smile, "is my son, Scott."

The Hale shifted his hand from Mrs. McCall to the cub still trying to ward him off with his eyes.

"Nice to meet ya, Scott."

Scott glanced back and forth between the offered hand and the giant's face in confusion. It gave him a strange feeling in his gut. Like when he looked at him, the giant didn't look down at him as a kid, like most adults or teenagers tend to do, but almost like an equal. It was a strange feeling but in a good way. That's why he cautiously lifted his hand and slowly shook the taller boy's hand. Maybe this wouldn't completely suck as he originally thought it would.

Melissa had to resist the urge to jump for joy as her son's hard masked face seemed to crack a bit. It may not be a big one but it was certainly more than she was expecting to happen within the very first day. With slightly less fear, she gave her son a quick hug and a promise to be back after a while before slowly leaving the two alone. Of course, she stuck her head back in at least three more times before relaxing enough to head home for some much needed sleep before her late shift at the hospital.

"So what's the plan for the day, Big Guy?" Derek asked casually as he grabbed a basketball from a ball rack and started sinking shot after shot. For all his confident bravado, the teen knew next to nothing on what he was supposed to do as the beta knew next to nothing about Scott.

Scott Henry McCall was pretty sure this Derek Hale guy was the most confusing teenager ever. The boy had walked into this assuming his new 'sibling' would just start barking orders and telling him what to do or had something planned that would inevitably make him feel like a five-year-old. But the giant didn't do any of that. He went against the very nature of things as the McCall understood them. Shaking off the idea that there was something seriously wrong with the teen's brain, Scott simply shrugged having no real idea on how to answer.

The Hale let out an audible sigh as he put the ball back where it went before plopping down on the bleachers next to the silent boy. He needed something to break through whatever impenetrable fortress his little brother had surrounded himself with. The problem was Derek had never really gone through what Scott had. Just thinking about the ass that had left his family vulnerable made his blood start to boil and his fingertips start to itch with his claws wanting to come out.

"Why are you mad?" asked a small voice from beside him.

Derek's face relaxed to normal and the itch slowly ebbed away as he turned to see Scott with a confused look on his features and a slight smell of apprehension.

"Sorry," the beta breathed out as he tried to calm himself. "Just thinking about how I'm not the biggest fan of your Old Man." The young one just kept looking at him confusedly making him sigh again because he would need to explain, which had never really been a strong suite for him. "Family is kind of a big thing for me. Honestly, I'd shutdown if something like that happened to me." A grin spread across his mouth as he thought about what he'd heard before coming into the gym. "But you didn't and I heard what you told your mom. I think she really needed to hear something like that, from you especially."

It was quiet for a bit after that.

"Just so you know he didn't used to be so bad."

The werewolf gave his full attention to the cub as he told him about his dad. Stories of camping in their backyard, fishing on a pond near the edge of town and taking Scott and his best friend to all kinds of places and events; anyone who heard these vivid retellings would never guess what would eventually happen.

"He was actually going to teach me to play lacrosse this summer but…I guess that not gonna happen," Scott finished, sounding sad and frustrated at the same time.

And that was when an idea hit him, the perfect way to help his new sibling.

"Come on, I know just where we need to go," Derek said confidently as he hopped up and walked towards a set of double doors he knew would lead outside to a back parking lot.

This sent up buzzing red alarms for the young McCall. They were most definitely not allowed to leave the school. At least, he did not think they were?

"Derek! I don't think we're supposed to leave the school!"

Scott knew he was doomed from the moment he saw the Hale's face. The same mischievous, nothing-good-could-happen grin that was usually spread across his best friend, Stiles's, face just before they ended up in serious trouble was almost perfectly mirrored on his face.

"Now where's the fun in that?" questioned the teen with the Stiles-esqe grin still in place before walking out the doors.

The child groaned loudly before taking a puff from his inhaler and giving in, just like every time with Stiles, and ran after his new 'big brother'.

0-0-0-0-0

Derek was thoroughly amused and pleased with his plan's success. The werewolf could smell the apprehension and fear coming off the cub as they slowly made their way to his school. That of course vanished the moment they reach the high school's lacrosse 'team' practice field. Team was a loose word as there were really only just enough players to enter competitions. The look of total awe on his little brother's face was priceless. Then the once silent boy started trying to follow all the players at once and firing off questions so fast an auctioneer would find it hard to understand.

"Hale! What in God's name are you doing here?! And who's the midget that's trying to go cross eye?!"

Derek immediately snapped his head in the direction of the screaming coach headed towards the pair.

Coach Bobby Finnstock, better known as Coach, was like no teacher or coach anyone had ever met. Hair that stuck up in every which direction and eyes that were stuck near constantly in wide eyed mode, combine all that with a slightly erratic and loud personality and most people questioned his sanity. All that aside, he was one of the better teachers at Beacon Hills High and a coach that was second to none. He had a way of motivating, though most if not all could barely understand a word he was saying, or getting under your skin that made you accomplish the impossible. He could probably convince a three-year-old to lift a car full of people.

"Not much, Coach," Derek answered casually as he dragged Scott, who had yet to blink or look away from the players or stop asking questions he didn't know how to answer, towards the bleachers. Pointing at the cub, the beta said, "The little dude wanted to learn about lacrosse, so I figured this was the place to go."

"That's what I want to hear!" exclaimed the coach in a loud, half-crazed way. While Finnstock's love for the sport was infinite, lacrosse wasn't the widest known sport in Beacon Hills, thus why he didn't quite have the player numbers he really needed to play or even practice like he wanted. But this kid was completely engrossed by everything his players were doing. If he could get this kid to help spread the word on the sport then he might get more members at the start of the next school year, maybe even get Hale to join. The man walked over to the team bench and rummaged through the equipment bag before finding what he needed.

"Hey, Half-Pint," call the coach as he walked back to the two. Once he had the kid's attention, he held out a smaller set of gloves, a lucky screw up with the order, and a lacrosse stick. "Feel like learning some of the basics?"

Stars lit up Scott's eyes at the chance to learn how to play his dream sport. He quickly nodded and ran over the crazed man before taking the offered crosse* and gloves with shaky hands. Pulling on the gloves, he moved his hands to the places he and Stiles had seen in all YouTube videos they'd watched, even though the 'short' crosse was actually nearly as tall as him.

Three hour and numerous draws from his inhaler later, practice ended and Scott was reluctant to let go of the crosse from his exhausted hands. The McCall was pretty sure in his few hours he'd been learning his 'want to play' had evolved into a 'need to play'.

"You coming back tomorrow, Half-Pint?" asked the coach as he finished filling up the equipment bag.

The boy turned his puppy eyes on his 'sibling', silently begging for him to be okay with it.

"I don't know…" The wolf-man pretended to think on it a moment, "We're not really supposed to leave your school…"

"Where's the fun in that?" Scott was quick to answer.

The Hale laughed loudly before checking the time on phone making his eyes widen in shock.

"Crap! Scott be gotta book it!" Derek yelled as he lifted the cub up under his arm and took off for the school.

0-0-0-0-0

Melissa stood wearily by her car as she waited the boys to walk out of the school. She herself was a couple minutes late due to the couch suddenly becoming entirely too comfortable but was almost fully refreshed from the power nap. Glancing at her watch, she began to nervously pop her knuckles trying to think of a reason they were late too. May be they just lost track of time from having too much fun?

'_That would be a good thing, right?'_

Then another ten minutes went by and her worry reached its peak. She was just about to head inside to find them when she saw two figures running towards her from around the corner of the building. Sighing loudly in relief, the McCall woman watched as the two got closer and closer before feeling herself freeze. A look of unadulterated joy and excitement covered her son's face, as if that horrible mask had never existed. The final blow came when Scott reached her and immediately asked if he could borrow her cellphone to call Stiles. The tears began to flow as she handed him the phone and watched him climb into her car.

Derek knew, in that moment, he had once again screwed up royally when he saw the tears in Mrs. McCall's eye. "Mrs. McCall, I am so sorr-" The teen tried to apologize but was cut off by a hug that held all the gratitude as if he'd just saved the world. He was more ready for the raging anger of a mother grizzly than Melissa's hug that spoke volumes of appreciation.

"Thank you," Melissa whispered with all the conviction she could. Words did not exist to tell this young man what he'd done for their broken family in hours what should have taken years.

The werewolf watch as the woman pulled back and quickly wiped the tears away. A truly, radiant smile spread across her face as she thanked him again before circling the car and pulling away to head home.

Derek listened as the cub sped talked to his mom and the person on his mom's phone about all the lacrosse stuff he'd learned that afternoon. Laughing as his mother told Scott to slow down and breath, the beta sent a quick text to his sister and waited for her to come get him.

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**So I hope this lived up to your guys' standards.**

**Crosse – the technical name for a lacrosse stick**


	3. Fun with Sisters and Girlfriends

**Thank you to all who reviewed my last chapter, it is much appreciated.**

**Also we get to meet some new people this chapter so look forward to seeing some Laura and Kate.**

**And since I don't know if I did this before, Disclaimer: I own nothing but the plot idea. DON'T SUE ME!**

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Derek sat patiently in his dad's truck on a surprisingly warm Tuesday morning, waiting for his little brother to show up with his mom.

A week had passed since that first day he'd met Scott and Derek was pretty sure things were going great.

The cub had really come out of the rest of his shell after that first day. Naïve and maybe a little dense at times but an awesome kid none the less, who above all kept his promise. The werewolf had never seen a happier boy than Scott McCall and he had checked. He'd been worried that the little guy, now out of his shell of numbness, had put up another mask and used a look of happiness to cover the sadness but that really wasn't the case. His brother was genuinely happy as if his bastard of an old man had never left.

The Hale smiled as he thought over everything and the big surprise he had waiting in the bed of the truck for the little guy.

A couple more minutes and a now memorized scent entered the air. "Derek!" The teen had just jumped out of the truck when a small body collided with his. He laughed quietly to himself before spinning the cub around and putting him in a loose headlock.

"What ya been up to, Punk?"

Scott laughed loudly as he tried to escape the older boy's grasp. Though it seemed kind of wrong, he was actually kind of glad his dad left. Sure he'd kind of shut down at first but then if he hadn't he would never have met Derek. The teen had said he had heard his declaration of being happy without his dad but in truth, he had no idea how they could. His dad had been his hero until the night his parents sat him down to tell him about the divorce. But now that his new 'big brother' was in the picture everything just seemed to get better and better.

His mom was smiling more and seemed to relax a bit while he had someone to look up to and help him with his lacrosse.

If the past week was any indicator as to what having an older sibling was like, then being an only child kind of sucked now.

"Not much, Jerk Face!"

"Scott Henry McCall!" Melissa tried to exclaim in indignation but was ruined by her giggling as the two boys joked with each other. She much preferred this to how things were just a couple weeks ago. "Well this is where I leave you two. I have a date with a pillow and it is calling my name." A quick kiss to her son's forehead and she was gone.

"Now then," Derek started with a grin, finally letting his little brother out of the lock. "I got a bit of a surprise for you." Heading for the truck, the werewolf reached into the bed and tossed a crosse over his shoulder towards the cub.

Said cub fumbled to catch the flying object, nearly falling over in the process. When he finally managed to get a hold of the thing, it took him a moment to realize what it was. It was a lacrosse stick but one that was actually for someone of his size. His eyes shot up to Derek, who had a wide grin as he pulled a goal from the truck as well, silently asking if this was real. "It's all yours, Punk. Think of it as an early birthday present." It was all he could not to scream for joy before he remembered something important the coach had made him memorize.

"Crap! Coach says it's bad to practice without my gloves…"

His answer was a set of gloves hitting him in the head.

"Compliments of the coach."

Now he could scream.

"Best. Gifts. EVER!"

The Hale had a smug grin on his face as he'd known the boy would love it.

"So, you ready to start, Half-Pint?" Derek asked, tossing a lacrosse ball towards the boy as he moved in front of the goal with his own gloves and crosse.

A bright grin spread across Scott's face as he rushed for the ball.

0-0-0-0-0

Laura Hale was pleased with herself as she rode in her best friend's SUV. Kate and she had pulled a pretty decent haul for their impromptu shopping trip. She'd have to thank the brat for needing a lift this morning. When the duo finally reached the park, she noticed her brother first standing between a net and a cub barely half his size, though she would give the kid credit as he managed to nearly get by Derek, who was probably only going half speed, a couple times. Her friend finally parked her beast of a vehicle and the she-wolf was about to bid her friend farewell when she was cut off by, "Would you please send your brother over here for a minute?" Laura knew by the look in her eyes her sibling had done something wrong and things were about to get funny as hell. Especially when she followed Kate's eyes to a group of girls openly ogling Derek in his muscle shirt.

"Can do my dear, Katherine. Can do."

Hopping out of the beast, the Hale quickly made her way over to the pair.

Derek smelt his sister as soon as she jumped out of the SUV. Waving over his little brother, who was taking a moment to take a hit from his inhaler, he wrapped an overly, sweaty arm around his sister as soon as she was within reach knowing it would gross her out. "Scott, this is my annoying big sister, Laura," Derek introduced with an amused grin, earning him a disgusted look and rib shot courtesy of said sister's elbow.

Scott's first impression of Laura was she looked kind of short to be Derek's big sister, the top of her head barely reached his chin. Also, their hair colors were really different, Derek's being a nighttime black and Laura's a chocolaty brown, but their eyes were the same strange green so he figured they had to be related at least somehow.

"So you're the kid Bite Size has been talking about. Nice to meet ya, Cutie," Laura greeted with a smile. His blush and goofy grin were adorable as he introduced himself. Turning to her brother, she said, "By the way, Kate wants to talk to you. Also, be a dear and grab my bags while you're there. Thank you!" She didn't wait for an answer as she turned the werewolf around and pushed him towards his girlfriend and her shopping items.

The McCall boy looked back and forth between Derek and the blonde driver of the SUV he guessed was Kate before turning back to Laura.

"How does _he_ get _her_?"

The Hale had to cover her mouth with both hands to keep from bursting with laughter, not just at what he asked but at the fact that her brother stumbled as he had heard it as well.

Laura was definitely going to like this kid.

Derek was in trouble, not that his stupid sister had the decency to warn him, but he'd managed to placate the Argent for the time being. Kate had a tendency to sometimes frighten people with her actions but none more so than her possessiveness, mainly shown when it concerned him. He'd seen her threaten girls with bodily harm when one got enough courage to try and flirt with him, not that the blond ever believed him when he told her she was the only spitfire for him.

Said spitfire was currently sitting cross armed in the driver's seat, thoroughly annoyed with her boyfriend. Any other guy and she would have still been ranting and raving about letting girls openly ogle him. But no, Derek Hale had to have this magical way with her that made her calm down and make her forget why she was pissed off. He was such a jerk. Kate was dragged from her annoyance by her door opening and a set of strong arms wrapping around her waist. She was pulled from the vehicle and when she tried to argue, a surprisingly soft set of lips covered hers. Derek may have been younger than her but the Argent would testify in court that there wasn't a better kisser.

Derek was pleased when he pulled away and saw a glazed look in Kate's eyes. "Come on. There's someone I want you to meet." The werewolf didn't wait for an answer and began pulling his girlfriend towards his siblings.

Stars lit up Kate's eyes as she got close enough to finally get a good look at Derek's new little 'sibling'. He was as adorable as a kid could get. His crooked little jaw that made his smile lopsided. The natural energetic feeling she got from him. But his eyes were what she loved the most. His little brown eyes were bright and innocent, almost like a puppy's. Something seemed to flip inside the wild child's mind and before anyone could notice her, Kate stepped forward and swept the little guy into a bear hug.

"I shall call him Puppy and he will be mine and he will be my Puppy! Can I have him, Derek? Please? I'll forgive you for everything if you let me!"

Scott didn't fight the girl in the least. He may have only been nine but when a beautiful woman hugs you, he knew you do not argue with it.

Derek was actually tempted, just for a moment, to let his wild and rowdy girlfriend have him but he knew Mrs. McCall wouldn't really appreciate that. "Sorry, Kate. His mom is probably not into the idea of you kidnapping her son." His girlfriend pouted at him as she pulled the boy closer, whispering an apology to Scott about how the 'bad man' won't let her take him home.

"It's okay. You can still call me Puppy if you want," Scott whispered back.

The Argent squealed with delight as she hugged him tighter and rubbed her cheek to his affectionately.

A chorus of growling stomachs interrupted Kate's love fest with Scott.

"Well, I guess that decides what we are doing next," Laura laughed out. "How about we load the truck up and head back to the house so I can whip us up something?"

"Damn, I have to miss your cooking Laur. Gerard says he wants to talk to me about something when we got done shopping," Kate answered, visibly deflated at losing the chance to eat Laura's cooking, her second favorite part about her best friend after her impish personality.

"Too bad but I'll make sure to save you something." That earned Laura a squeal and a hug from her blond friend, who then gave Scott a goodbye hug and her brother a quick kiss before heading back to her beast. Rolling her eyes, the she-wolf turned to the boys. "Okay my minions, Scotty, you and me are gonna pick all your sports thingies and Derek, you go get my bags, which you forgot to get the first time." Derek just rolled his eyes and she did the mature thing by sticking out her tongue at him. Once her little brother finally started towards Kate's SUV, she turned to see a wide grin on the little cub's face.

"What?"

"I get why you're the big sister now," Scott said laughing before rushing off to pick up his gear.

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**So yeah that was a bit longer than I had planned. Originally, I was going to have Peter make an appearance but that didn't happen. So we will just have to meet Peter next chapter.**

**I hope you enjoyed.**

**Also for a little factoid, it is in fact bad to not practice with gloves. The peculiar way that players hold a crosse makes it where holding a stick with gloves and without gloves feel completely different. Messing you up big time if you go from practicing without directly to playing with.**


	4. Big House, Food and the 'Lunatic' Hale

**Nothing big to say except thanks for the reviews and everyone had a happy holiday.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Wolf.**

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Humungous.

Ginormous.

Over the top.

Pick any of those and that was the best way to describe the Hale house, for Scott at least. It was easily the biggest house, if that was the right word for the monstrous piece of architecture, he'd ever seen. That included Jackson Whittmore's place, which he'd been to before the guy started thinking he was better than anyone else.

"You guys live here?" asked the cub in disbelief as he looked back and forth between the Hale siblings.

"We kind of need a house this size for a family as big as ours."

This boggled the young McCall's mind as the place looked like it could hold thirty easily and comfortably.

The Hale siblings laughed quietly to themselves as the kid continued to gape at their dwellings. While their home could hold quite a few humans, when it came to the eight werewolves, three humans and the occasional nomad pack that passed through the place had just enough room.

"Come on, Scottie," Laura said as she ruffled the boy's hair. "Time to put some food in that little tummy of yours. Chef Laura is about to blow your mind into the stratosphere."

And she kept her promise.

For the first time in Scott's young life, the McCall boy knew what it felt like to be Stiles Stilinski or as he preferred when it came to food 'King Taste Bud'. Unlike his best friend, the cub wasn't biggest fan when it came to food. He ate when he got hungry of course but he by no means enjoyed it to the full extent Stiles did.

Until the day the cub had Laura Hale's cooking.

Grilled cheese, that was all he had asked for. Simple to fix and it filled him up nicely but that was not what he got. Instead, a culinary masterpiece was laid out in front of him and each bite sent him into some kind of euphoric bliss. Grilled cheese was too simple a name for this sandwich and he was sure if he got to eat one every day for the rest of his life, it would be filled with joy and happiness.

"Looks like another satisfied customer, Laur," announced the male wolf as he finished his own cheesy goodness.

The she-wolf did a dramatic bow before telling him she couldn't wait till he tried her cookies.

Both boys visibly perked up at this. The Hale at the chance to have some of his sister's special cookies, an ancient Hale secret passed down through the women folk of the family only, and the McCall at the prospect that there was something as good as his lunch.

It took an hour and a half, Derek and Scott spent the time watching TV, but it was well worth the wait. Scott, being naïve, merely grabbed one while Derek knew of their taste and grabbed until his sister pulled the remainder out of reach. Both looked as if they had tasted the divine, though when they finished their first Derek still had three more while Scott had to go to the source.

"Can I have another one?" Scott begged, unconsciously releasing the full force of his puppy eyes on his 'brother's' sister.

The Hale girl had to physically dig her claws into her arm behind her back to not give in. There was no fun in just giving into his demands, even if his look compelled her to do anything he wanted. She had been sure he would love the cookies, everyone did, but this was almost too much. The idea of Scott in a couple years popped into her mind and she could see him beating off girls with a stick, while the she-wolf and her brother laughed their asses off of course.

"W-what are the magic words?" she stuttered out after pointed looking away from his eyes.

Scott, completely missing the teen's uneasiness, had to think hard about how to answer. One wrong word and he could be denied the 'tiny pieces of Heaven' as Stiles would have put it. That could not happen; Stiles would destroy him in some super elaborate way and never get caught.

"I'll be your slave and do whatever you tell me to do?"

That was not exactly what the she-wolf was expecting but it was definitely something she could work with.

"Deal. Now take the garbage out to the garage and I'll have two cookies waiting for you when you get back."

Without another word, the kid had the bag out, tied up and was disappearing out of sight. Laura thought she should probably have told him where the garage was but she was sure he'd figure it out after a while. Pleased with one of her chores being done by someone else, the teenage girl turned to see her brother staring at her.

"What?"

"You do realize you're manipulating a small, impressionable child with sweets, right?"

"Yes, and I am lovin' every second of it!" Laura exclaimed with a smile before taking a bite from one of her creations.

Derek rolled his eyes and was about to lecture her, once again, on not using her desserts to control people when their Uncle Peter walked in, rubbing his eyes and looking thoroughly confused.

"Either of you notice a little guy with a crooked jaw running around the house?"

The werewolf gave his sibling a pointed look before turning back to his uncle.

Peter Hale was by far the most complicated member of their family and pack. Massively intelligent, he was a calm and completely in control individual, making him a man to be feared in the business and werewolf world, most of the time. Most of the time being the focus of that statement. When around family especially Nathan Hale, his brother and Derek's father, he turned into the biggest goofball on the planet. Derek's mother liked to call him the family 'lunatic', pun completely intended because his mom had an odd sense of humor like that, but Peter just insisted that family brought out the 'better side' of him.

"Yeah that would be Scott McCall, who my dear sister is controlling with cookies."

"Oh thank God," Peter sighed in relief. The man had thought he was losing his mind seeing a random kid running around their home, especially with a full moon drawing so near. Now he didn't feel so strange for giving the 'illusionary boy' directions to the garage. Said boy chose that moment to burst back into the kitchen and raced up to his niece.

"Done. Cookies please!"

The man chuckled to himself as the cub quickly devoured the treats. The boy was entertaining if nothing else.

"Hey! You're the guy that gave me directions. Thanks for that!" exclaimed Scott as he held out his hand. "I'm Scott. Are you Derek's dad?"

The werewolf laughed loudly at the young man's loud, forwardness. "No, no, I'm just his uncle. Peter is the name and thank you for not being a delusion." He laughed some more when the cub stared at him in confusion. "Don't worry about it. So how do you like spending so much time with my nephew? Between you and me, he's the boring one of the family." Laura laughed with him while Derek rolled his eyes but it was Scott's reaction that was the most remarkable and unexpected. The lad seemed to take his words as an insult and metaphorically 'ripped him a new one' about how 'cool' and 'awesome' Derek was. The sureness of his words astounded him to no end. The look on his face must have been priceless by snickering coming from his brother's children.

It took Scott a moment to realize what he'd done. He just yelled at a fully grown adult, Derek's uncle no less. Then a terrifying thought entered his mind and paranoia took over. What if Derek wasn't happy that he'd yelled at his family? What if Derek didn't want to spend so much time with him? What if he didn't want anything to do with him period? Scott felt the attack coming before it really hit and reached for his inhaler as fast as he could. It took a few puffs before the attack ceased.

"Well, I appear to have been put in my place."

The cub gaped at the man he'd basically insulted.

Was everyone in the Hale family messed up in the head?

"Come on, Punk," Derek said pulling the kid toward the door. "Let's work off some of that lunch."

The boy followed along happily, relieved that Derek wasn't going to abandon him.

0-0-0-0-0

Peter kept his eyes firmly on the dark road ahead of him as he drove, Derek keeping a watch on the sleeping child in the back seat. Scott was a rather intriguing individual to the wolf-man. He'd heard the story from his nephew but it was one thing to hear it and another to see. Peter had seen wolves crumble under the things that had happened to this boy yet the cub had rose up, ready take up the mantle of pack protector. It was no surprise the respect Derek had for him.

When they finally reached the McCall residence, the wolves found the house lit up and the sounds of a crying woman coming from upstairs.

This was a rather large embarrassment on their part as they forgot to keep track of the time and didn't check until Scott was passing out from exhaustion.

"We are in so much trouble," the younger Hale whispered.

Peter completely agreed.

Feeling they'd wasted enough time, the two jumped out of the car and Derek grabbed the cub before speed walking up to the house. Peter barely knocked on the door before a herd of buffalo rushed down the stairs and the door flew open to reveal the most gorgeous being in existence. The only problem was there were tears in her eyes and he could smell fear buzzing all around her, both of which he hated instantly without really knowing why. The wolf-man could feel the relief wash over her when she saw the boy passed out in his nephew's arms.

Melissa had never been so terrified in her life. She'd woken up close to an hour ago, expecting Scott to be rummaging around the kitchen to make his own dinner like usual when she had a late shift. But he wasn't there. She ran around the house for ten minutes calling his name but found nothing. In tears, Melissa did the only thing she could think of, call her best friend and sheriff of Beacon Hills, Jack Stilinski. Lucky for her, it only rang twice.

"Stilinski residence. Jack speaking."

"Jack! Please, please tell me Scott is over there with you and Stiles!"

"No, he's not." The woman could hear Jack's voice changing. "Now Lissa I want you to calm down and tell me what's going on."

Not for the first time in her life, Melissa was happy to hear her friend in cop mode and quickly told him everything that had happened since she'd woken up.

"Okay, now is there anything else you can tell me? Where he might be and what he's been doing today?"

Melissa racked her brain, trying to think of what her son might have been doing all day while she was sleeping. It took a moment before a black clad giant appeared in her mind.

"Derek! Derek Hale! Scott was supposed to spend the day with him!"

"Good. Give him a call if you have his number. I'll head out to the Hale house and check there."

The woman spent the next twenty minutes call Derek's cell phone, redialing over and over, to no avail. She was just about to break down again when she heard a knock. Melissa raced down the stairs like a bat out of hell, her heart trying to pound its way out of her chest. As soon as she saw her son snoozing in his 'brother's' arms a sense of ease fell over her and she damn near slumped to the floor in exhaustion. The Hale boy immediately tried to apologize but she cut him off with a hand gesture as she wiped her watery eyes before telling him to take Scott upstairs to his room.

"We are honestly sorry about this, Mrs. McCall. We-I should have paid more attention to the time," Peter said as his nephew disappeared into the house.

"No, no… I'm the one who freaked out and completely blanked that Scott was with Derek. I woke up and he wasn't here and I just sort of panicked. With Max gone now and everything at work and…and I'm rambling my problems to a complete stranger. Now I know I'm losing my sanity…"

The werewolf tried his best to hide his amusement at the lovely woman's so called ramblings.

"Well," the wolf-man started, holding out his hand and a confident smirk on his face, "we'll just have to remedy that. I'm Peter Hale, Derek's uncle, a pleasure to meet you."

"Me-Melissa," the woman stuttered taking his hand, blushing like a school girl.

'_Stop that! You're a grown woman! One who just recently got divorced!'_

Those thoughts didn't stop her from noticing and appreciating his rather stunning good looks.

This was the scene the younger Hale walked in upon, the two adults staring at each other shaking hands, completely oblivious to everything around them. He'd honestly never seen his uncle this captivated by anyone. "Mrs. McCall." His voice seemed to break the two from whatever spell had been cast as they turned towards him. "Scott's in bed now. Don't worry about him being hungry. We kind of already had dinner." She gave him a nod of understanding before bidding them a good night and closing the door behind them.

Once he was sure Scott's mom couldn't hear, Derek bumped his uncle's shoulder as the two made their way back to his car.

"Were you flirting with Scott's mom back there?"

Peter for his part didn't trip up or blush, his perfect poker face held fast at his nephew's question. Too bad all that was nixed by his rapid heartbeat and the roar of blood pumping. Thirty-four years, no woman has even come close to what Melissa McCall had done in five minutes.

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

His hand flew out and smacked the back of Derek's head when he heard the boy snickering.

**ASDFASDFASDF**

**So…yeah that's that. Don't worry my readers. Next chapter is last one in the past, after that we get to the really good stuff.**

**To those that question it, it is in fact perfectly possible to wake up and completely forget everything. It could last an instant to a couple minutes where you can forget your name, where you are, everything that happened the day before, etc. Chances are you'll experience it at least a couple times in your life, mostly but not limited to while you're sick with a fever or a head cold.**


	5. Fear and Fire

**Hiya loyal readers! First off I hope everyone got through the holidays without any incidents(that means getting drunk off your ass and doing something stupid). Second, thank you to all the awesome peoples who reviewed(there were quite a few more than I was expecting)! Third, sorry for the long wait. I finally got a job so it's taking up a lot of my old free time.**

**So enjoy this extra-long chapter from me and hopefully it doesn't suck.**

**ASDFASDFASDF**

Scott stared up at his school with slight annoyance as he waited for his best friend to show up.

After his amazing summer of spending time with Derek, Kate, and the Hales and hanging out with Stiles, the idea of going back to school seemed rather lame.

"Yo, Scottie!"

He'd barely heard the voice before an arm wrapped around his neck. It was, of course, Stiles Stilinski, the greatest and most insane friend a guy could ask for. The oddball had gotten lucky and grew a couple inches over the summer while he was still stuck at the same shortness. What really stuck out was he kept rubbing his eyes and yawning a lot; he had probably spent another night of worrying about Mrs. Stilinski. His mom hadn't been feeling very good the past couple of weeks and seemed to need a nap every couple of hours, an oddity for a woman who normally made Stiles energy levels look tame. Scott's mom had tried to get Mrs. Stilinski to get checked out at the hospital but Stiles inherited his distraction skills from her and always seemed to change the subject when it came to a hospital visit.

"Sup' Stiles? Ready for another year of this place?"

His best friend proceeded into a rant about the 'evils' of school, in true Stiles fashion, minus Lydia Martin, the girl he'd had a crush on since the year before last.

Alas, the fun could never last as the pair heard a voice they both really didn't want to hear.

"McCall! Freak!"

'_Oh boy…'_

The McCall boy had been dreading this moment since last year ended. Before he and Stiles could even move they were surrounded by four fifth graders and like usual at the head was Ryan. Ryan and his goon squad had been picking on them since the second grade simply because they were younger than him. It didn't help that they were forever smaller than the older boys.

"What do you want?"

"Oh, you know, I figured it's the first day and I thought to myself 'Hey, why don't I find my friends McCall and Freak!'. Plus I still owe you dweebs for that little prank last year."

Crap! He knew that was going to come back and bite them in the butts! Two days after he had come out of his little 'funk' as his friend put it, Stiles had had the 'brilliant' idea that for the end of the year they should get a little payback for all the stuff Ryan and his friends had done to them. So they'd rushed out at the end of the day to where Stiles had hid two super soakers full of orange soda and waited. The moment the bigger kids walked out, the pair attacked and emptied both tanks all over them while everyone else around them laughed. Somehow they hadn't got in an ounce of trouble; all the adults laughed and, for reasons beyond him, thought it was a prank between friends. Parents could be so oblivious sometimes.

Now they were going to pay for it.

"So, Scooter," Scott hated being called that, "how was the first summer since your dad abandoned you?"

"Shut up, Ryan!" yelled Stiles, only feel one of the guys behind them pull him into a choke hold.

"Like you got room to talk, Freak," Ryan said laughing. "From what I hear, your mom's not doing too well. It's supposed to be something serious, right? Doesn't really surprise me. Dealing with a monster freak like you every day and I'd start feeling sick too. Wonder how long before your dad starts not feeling well?"

He saw how the older boy's words were affecting his friends. For Stiles, the idea of losing his mom was bad enough but his dad to and it being his fault was too much.

Some of Derek's words shot to the forefront of his mind, specifically when he asked about how he was related to Daryl and Melanie, a couple who lived at his house but had different last names.

"_We're not but that doesn't mean we aren't family. They care about me and I care about them. Anyone can be your family as long as you care about their happiness and they care about yours."_

Scott had really thought about what his 'big brother' had said and found that he already had three people like that. Stiles, his mom and the Sheriff had always been in his life from his very first memories to now and showed no sign of leaving any time soon. They were a part of his family.

That's why the moment he saw Stiles' eyes start to water, Scott's vision went red. Without a second thought, he leapt at Ryan in a flying tackle and somehow managed to pin him to the ground. His hand curled into a fist of its own accord and seconds later, it was slamming into the jerk's face over and over again. The others tried to stop him but a lucky backwards headbutt, into what he was guessing was a nose, and they let go of his friend before hightailing it out of there. Stiles was the one to finally stop him.

When the red haze finally lifted, he gaped at the sight in front of him. Ryan's face was covered in a mess of blood and swelling bruises. He turned to his now throbbing hand to see the tiny appendage covered in thick red liquid, with only some of it being his own from split knuckles. His small body began to tremble as what he'd done hit him.

'_I…I…'_

He looked all around him, eyes dilated with terror, from Stiles' shocked look to Ryan's messed up face to the looks of awe and fear of the other kids that had gathered.

He did the only thing his ten year old mind could think of.

Scot McCall ran.

0-0-0-0-0

"DEREK!"

Said Hale was relaxing comfortably with some of his friends, waiting for his next class to start, when his sister comes barreling into the classroom like a psycho.

"Whoa, Laur, calm down. What's got you worked up? Did one of those vegan nutbars try and take cheeseburgers off the menu again?" he asked while laughing and about to go back to talking to his friends.

The werewolf wasn't expecting Laura to start smacking him upside the head.

"You jerk! Why haven't you been picking up your phone?! Have you even talked to Scott's mom?!"

"I don't have it on me, okay?!" Derek shouted while trying, and failing, to ward off his sibling's attacks. "And why would Mrs. McCall want to talk to me?!"

Laura slowly stopped hitting her idiot baby brother's head. It was just as she feared, he had no clue what was going on.

"Derek…Scott got into a fight this morning and ran off…he's been missing for over an hour."

Anything else she said was lost on him, as he was out of the class and running down the hall in seconds. The principal yelled after him about cutting class but the wolf-man could have cared less. His little brother was missing and he was going to find him. Then Derek was going to find the little bastard that dared to hurt him and ring his tiny neck until the kid's face turned blue.

Opting to just run instead of grabbing Laura's car, Derek made it to Scott's school in under a minute. The first thing he noticed was a police car and the Sheriff of Beacon Hills himself talking to the principal. Not trusting the cops to find Scott quick enough, the werewolf took a whiff of the air to find the direction the cub went when an all too familiar smell assaulted him. Blood. His eyes blazed white blue as he could smell some of Scott's mixed with two more. He quickly zeroed in on the trail and was gone in the blink of an eye.

It was only a couple minutes before he found a sign of Scott. Unluckily enough, it was his inhaler covered in dry blood. Closing his eyes, Derek let his senses take over to find out why his brother would drop what was basically his lifeline. The vision hit and Derek couldn't change fast enough. A terrifying sound came from his left that made his blood run cold.

"Sorry Der…rek…"

The following roar made his vision glaze red.

0-0-0-0-0

Scott had been running through the woods for a while now, taking puffs from his inhaler whenever necessary and trying not to stumble over anything. All the while he'd thought of all the places he could go that would be safe. He couldn't go home because his mom would destroy him and he couldn't go to Stile's house because after what he'd done the Sheriff would arrest him for sure. That only left one place. So now he was heading for the Hale house because if anyone could help him it was Peter Hale. He'd helped him and his mom countless times over the summer from fixing their leaky roof to helping them keep their house, though Peter and Mr. Nate made him promise not to tell his mom.

A familiar pain in his chest started once more forcing him to again stop to take a puff from his inhaler. He'd just pulled it out of his pocket, wincing from rubbing his torn knuckles, when he felt something breathing down his neck. Scott slowly turned and screamed as he came face to face with a bear. His flight response kicked in immediately and without a second thought, dropped his inhaler and ran. It was a denser part of the woods so it helped keep the beast a distance behind him but his chest was hurting more and more with each passing second and his vision was beginning to blur. It wasn't long before a root got the better of the boy and he was sent sprawling across the ground. Scott was face first in the leaves, gasping for any air he could get as the bear's thundering steps slowed behind him.

This was it; this was the karma thing Stiles had been telling him about for years. Good things happen to good people and bad things happen to bad people. Guess he knew where he fell on that scale. Scott wasn't really even scared after he realized that, just apologetic.

He was sorry his mom had to raise him on her own.

He was sorry he couldn't have been a better friend to Stiles.

He was sorry for all the crap Stiles and him put the Sheriff through.

He was sorry to Mrs. Stilinski for nearly setting her house on fire.

He was sorry for hurting Ryan.

But most of all, the cub was sorry for letting down his 'big brother', who'd done everything for the younger boy the pass couple of months, only for him screw it all up.

"Sorry Der…rek…"

Scott was just about to let darkness take him when a roar that easily dwarfed the bear's echoed through the woods, shaking the ground beneath him. Now back in the 'fear zone', shared by the bear if the stomping fading into the distance was any indicator, the boy waited for whatever could be bad enough to scare off a grizzly. Suddenly, he felt someone flipping him over before something was shoved into his mouth. The recognized click from an inhaler struck his ears, forcing his body to take a deep breath in practiced response. His vision cleared rapidly to show Derek looking over him worriedly.

"Derek?"

"Oh thank God," Derek sighed in relief as he pulled the cub into a near bone crushing hug.

The moment he'd seen the bear in the vision the wolf man nearly lost himself to the wolf. He hadn't cared if Scott saw his other side when he found the smaller boy, as long as he was still alive and safe. Luckily, the giant fur ball was still a couple feet away from him and on an even brighter sided, though it was in gasps, his little brother's wheezing breaths proved he was among the living. The raven haired boy was in between the beast and Scott in seconds and let forth a howl he was sure his whole family could hear from wherever they may have been. Waiting a bit to make sure the bear was gone for good, the teen shoved his claws into the sides of his legs to force back the wolf as fast as possible before rushing to his brother's side and helping him gain back his breath.

Eventually, the Hale pulled back and held onto the cub's shoulders.

"Don't you ever run away like that again, okay?! You had me worried sick! No telling how your mom is feeling right now! The cops are even out looking for you!"

Scott simply nodded before diving back into the comfort of his big brother's arms and slowly let his eyes droop as the day's events became too much for him.

Derek laughed to himself as the kid's soft snores reached his ears. Putting an arm under his legs, the wolf-man slowly rose and started the trek back to the road, where hopefully a passing car would be willing to give them a lift.

An odd thought was stuck in the back of his mind as he walked through the trees and over stumps, his werewolf reflexes making sure he never jostled his charge.

Would it really be so terrible if Scott, and even Mrs. McCall as his uncle was falling for her rapidly even if he'd never said it out loud, knew about their secret?

JANUARY 2006

It was gone.

All of it, scorched into oblivion.

The police had come while they were in the middle of class. Laura and he picked up immediately something serious had happened, their parents liked to keep a safe distance from the fuzz as to not draw attention, especially by the smell of ashes and foliage covering the deputies. The Sheriff was the one to break the news to them. Their family was all but gone.

Laura's knees buckled instantly and she sobbed unabashedly into his jacket when he pulled her to him.

The next couple of hours passed in a blur of nothingness. After the cops finally let them go, the siblings rushed to the hospital to visit Peter, the one and only survivor. What the two found was a shell of a man, bound to a wheelchair, a face half covered in gauze from burns and an inhuman, blank stare that didn't even recognize the last of his family. It was worse than if he had died, at least then the man would have been at peace with his loved ones.

Derek flung himself at the wall, his head resting against it as he pounded away, no care for the pain shooting up his arm every time his knuckles cracked and healed. His sister finally stopped his self-mutilation by spinning him around and glaring up at him with a set of ruby red Alpha eyes. That was the final nail in the coffin for the both of them. The only way for Laura to inherit those eyes was if their father was truly gone.

Now the siblings were standing together outside the ruins of their home. Barely a fourth of the once grand home was left standing while the rest lay in lifeless piles on the forest floor.

No more of their parents' random PDA moments that made them cringe.

No more watching as their Aunt Clare tried to corral her four year old twins while Sasha laughed hysterically at her mother's plight.

No more full moon hunts with Daryl and Melanie, a ritual the two had created to aim their bloodlust during their monthlies while the pair had been Omegas.

Nothing left of their pack but two kids, one of whom was an inexperienced Alpha, and a man who was all intents and purposes was dead to the world.

And it had been entirely his fault.

He'd smelt it not long after they'd arrived to see if anything was salvageable.

Kate Argent's perfume assaulted his nose, even though the revolting stench of burned flesh only a supernatural would sense filled the air like poison.

And worse, Derek knew the hunters would be long gone, probably already out of the state, and even if he caught up with them, he'd have to rip through an army just to get to her.

"Derek," the wolf man turned to his unnaturally, calm sister. Gone was the mischievous glint in her eyes and the near constant impish smile, both probably never to be seen again. "We need to leave. I wouldn't surprise me if the hunters left a few behind to try and sweep up the rest of us. Putting as much distance between Beacon Hills and us is the safest thing we can do right now until we come up with something."

Derek only nodded before turning his back on the only home the werewolf had ever known. He just had to do one thing before he left.

It turned out that Laura had called it right when she thought the hunters would leave a few behind. At least a couple dozen were spread out all across their property and those were only the ones they'd come across. Suffice to say, it had never been such a trial just to reach Scott's house but the later hour's darkness served them well. His phone showed it to be nearly midnight, making Derek assume Scott would already be snoozing away but the light coming from his window told him different. Once both his sister and he checked for threats, the siblings shot up a wood trellis and onto the McCall's roof. They'd barely snuck in through the window before a tiny blur rushed them, hugging them both with all the force its tiny arms could muster.

A vice latched itself to his chest and proceeded to try and crush everything within its grasp. Derek sent a pained looked to his sister to see the same anguish reflecting in hers.

How do you tell someone so young that you were leaving and may never come back?

Laura found the strength where her brother could not. Lowering herself to Scott's level and wiped some of the tears drizzling down his cheeks, the she-wolf took a deep, shuddering breath.

"Scottie…I know it's going to be hard to understand but me and Derek have to leave Beacon Hills tonight. I don't know if we'll ever come back."

The child's eyes widened in horror.

"What?! No! No, you can't leave! Your home is here! You can… You can stay here! Yeah, Mom won't mind! You can live here with us and we'll be a family!"

Water flooded her eyes at his all too tempting offer. They could stay in Beacon Hills and stay with two people who had, in a short period, connected with the small town's 'least outgoing' family. Life without her favorite little minion and his mom seemed impossible to imagine now. All those thoughts were voided when the imaginary cries of her Aunt and the twins screamed in her mind. Three innocents, three _human_ innocents, were gone simply because the hunters wanted to take them out. This brought forth the terrified shouts of Mrs. McCall as she raced through a burning house to find Scott. Staying wasn't an option, not if they wanted to keep the McCalls out of danger. "No, Scott…we can't…" The tears finally escaped and Laura turned to appeal to her brother to take over.

Derek sucked in a breath before pulling the cub from the she-wolf's grasp and turning the brunette towards himself.

"I'm sorry, Bud. We have to go live with some of our family in New York. There's nothing we can do about it right now."

His lie satisfied him even less that Scott.

"Y-You'll come back r-right? To visit?"

The child's watery, red eyes were pleading to him, begging for a positive response and the wolf-man knew he could never refuse. So the raven haired teen used the one thing that would guarantee he kept it. An ancient werewolf tradition that bound one's word to their family name, forcing a wolf to keep their promise or destroy their family's name and reputation forever.

"Gealltanas."

Derek laughed quietly for the first time that day at his baby brother's look.

"It's a Celtic word meaning promise. A…family tradition that makes it where no matter what, I can never break it. I can't tell you when but one day, I'll be back."

"Both of us will," Laura added with a tearful smile.

Not sure what else to do or say, Derek regretfully pulled away from the cub and started for the window. Once again, the vice was tightening in his chest with each step he took. Could he really leave like this? He'd realized, just like his sister, why they couldn't stay but it still felt like there was something he should do, something he should say. But 'what' was the question plaguing his mind. The unusually, loud clinking sound of metal around his neck seemed to answer his troubled mind. The word 'Perfect' entered his mind as he removed the jewelry and turned back to the brunette child.

"Wait. I have to give you something."

Scott watched as his brother place the overly large, for him at least, chain over his head and hold up the pendant. It was a half dollar sized, silver circle with three red spirals interconnected at the center the McCall had seen a hundred times since Derek had turned sixteen. He looked to the taller Hale, silently asking what the necklace was.

"That is a going away present. The red swirls form what's called a triskelion, a symbol our family has used for years. Every Hale, on their sixteenth birthday, gets a necklace just like this. But due to what's happened, you are getting yours early. From now on you are a Hale, Scott, and no matter what anyone says, we're family."

The cub smiled wide as he hugged the giant teen again.

"Derek, it time."

Scott sadly, waved goodbye one last time before blinking and finding himself, once again, alone in his room. He held his gift tightly in his small hands as he climbed into bed, a habit he would soon develop for every time he thought of the Hales and his big brother.

**ASDFASDFASDF**

**So…yeah…review please?**


	6. Wolf Moon Part 1

**I guess it's time for the fun stuff to start happening.**

**I want to give a shout out to the AWESOME! people who review! Totally blown away by your responses.**

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own Teen Wolf. If I did Batman would have his Catwoman.**

**ASDFASDFASDF**

It was a little after one in the morning when a pitch black Camaro pulled to a stop at the town limit, a large dimly, lit sign off to the right glaring 'Welcome to Beacon Hills' in the driver's face.

Derek could feel his heart hammering away in his chest and his palms making the steering wheel slick with sweat. He so sure he could handle this, that after five and half years of locking it all away his resolve would be unshakable. It shattered within seconds of just seeing the weather worn sign. Only his supernatural reflexes saved him from spinning out on the rain-sodden road when he slammed his brakes. It had been so simple in the wolf-man's head, no fear had even entered his mind less than a mile back, but now it was all he could do not to break every speed limit from there back to New York.

Laura was the only reason he hadn't.

The werewolf had their last conversation still fresh in his mind.

_Derek stared at the birthday card in his hands. It was for Scott, his favorite little brother, as his birthday was less than a week away. But like every other year before he was conflicted about sending it. A card sent through the mail seemed like such a poor substitute for actually being there and giving it to him in person. The raven haired man chuckled to himself as he imagined the look on Scott's face if he showed up out of nowhere. His amused appearance was brief as his mental walls quickly reassembled themselves into a fortress. With a guilty sigh, he walked across Laura's and his apartment to a desk where they kept all their important documents and placed it with the other cards he didn't have the heart to send._

_Finding himself in much need of a diversion, Derek went looking for his sister hoping they could grab a bite to eat or something as equally distracting. He found the ex-Wild Child bouncing around her room, loading up a suitcase and mumbling incoherently to herself. His polite knock on the door frame was met with her jumping three feet in the air and baring her claws and fangs at him. Something was wrong._

"_Where you heading to?"_

_Laura took a moment to compose herself before shifting back and resumed packing haphazardly._

"_I-I'm going away for a few days, a week tops. It's nothing to worry about."_

_That last statement would have set off red alarms even if he couldn't hear the lie in her heart beat. Now he knew something was definitely wrong and he and the wolf wanted to know what it was so they could protect their Alpha and sister. He stared her down as she continued to move about, almost like she was _trying_ to avoid looking at him. Derek didn't know how long he waited but eventually his Alpha gave in. She pulled out a folded piece of paper from her pocket and handed it to him._

_The Hale quickly zeroed in on the picture. A black and white deer lay dead in what appeared to be an open area for anyone to see but it was the Spiral that drew him in. Every person born into the life knew the severity of the revenge symbol. He quickly read over all the information and to his utter horror the numbers to call were the Police Department or Animal Clinic…in Beacon Hills, California. He swiftly turned his fearful eyes to his sister and her nod only confirmed it._

"_That came in the mail a couple days ago. No way to track who sent it and trust me, I tried. I called someone in the area, a supernatural advisor of sorts, to make sure it was legit."_

_The wolf-man gave back the paper before making a beeline for his own room, barely noticing the soft steps behind him._

"_What are you doing?"_

"_I'm going with you," he announced as he grabbed a bag from closet and started tossing clothes at it._

"_No, you're not."_

_He froze and slowly turned to his Alpha with disbelieving eyes._

_Laura let out a frustrated sigh._

"_I said no, Derek. This is why I wasn't going to tell you until the last minute. I want to be quiet about this and people will recognize you and once word spreads that a Hale is back in town, so will whoever made that Spiral."_

_Before he could control himself, the man had a hold of his sister, keeping her place as he glared down at her with glowing white-blue eyes. "I don't care! We need to protect Scott and Mrs. McCall! They need to be kept safe and I can't do that from here!" Derek knew they had never said it out loud but Scott and his mom were pack and he knew Laura felt the same way by the look in her eyes. It took a moment for him to realize what he was doing. The raven haired man barely let go, the hand-print bruises already starting to fade from his sister's skin, before Laura enveloped him in her familial embrace that had not been allowed for some time. She quelled his thrashing heart and gasping breathes within seconds like only his sister could._

_When the she-wolf finally pulled away from him, she rested a hand on his face, rubbing his cheek with her thumb as she continued to try and sooth his fears._

"_I promise, Derek, I'll make sure they're safe and after everything is settled, I'll call you. Maybe it's time we kept our promise to my favorite little minion?"_

_And like a ghost from the past, the Hale man saw it. Just for that moment, the impish smile and mischievous glint in her eyes returned and the old Laura was back._

"_Okay," Derek whispered with uncertainty._

He gave in, then immediately made her promise to call him often, he didn't trust texting as it could just as easily be someone else on the other side. She had laughed before yelling he was a worry-wart as she walked back to her room.

That had been just over a week ago. Laura knew his schedule like the back of her hand. Even at its most random points, she seemed to call at the exact moment he had a free moment. Someone might have thought it was unnatural but they were werewolves so there had to be stranger things in the world. Then two days ago, the calls had abruptly stopped. He'd nearly freaked when she didn't call within ten minutes of him waking up like normal but managed to calm himself with the thought that maybe she'd just lost her phone again. Laura could track people or animals with the best of them but when it came to her cell, it was like finding a needle in space. After an hour, Derek figured he'd call her and maybe help her find the damn thing. No such luck and before long he couldn't take it anymore. By noon, the Hale was tossing a bag in the back of his Camaro and sliding into the driver's seat.

Twenty-nine hours of driving, well over the speed limit in most places, and five hours of sleep later, he was sitting at the border to his hometown.

"Fuck this," Derek seethed as he jerked his car into first and tore down the soaked road, angered that a stupid sign would stop him from getting to Laura.

A sense of familiarity crushed down on him as he wound his way through the back roads. Tracking down where his sister was staying was simple, even with the rain washing away all but the strongest scents. There was only one place she could go and not give away her presence unless necessary. The burnt out husk they'd once called home. Before the werewolf even realized it, he was pulling to a stop in front blackened house, which had a stunning lack of graffiti.

To anyone else, it looked like something straight out of an old Horror movie. But for Derek, probably his sister as well, an image of its old vibrancy was super imposed over the reality. The laughter of ghosts long gone echoed from inside as he made his way up the creaky steps and slowed to a halt a foot from the door. Swallowing the lump that had formed in his throat, the Hale pushed open the door and stepped over threshold, announcing quietly, "I'm home." The familiar scent of Laura reached him, soothing his nerves, if only a little, without even needing to be present. Following her trail up the stairs eventually lead him to a room left almost complete unharmed by the fire if you didn't count the walls darkened by smoke. Not trusting himself to stay awake if he went near the simple mattress and bundle of covers by the corner, the wolf-man tossed his stuff over where Laura had hidden hers and practically sprinted out the door. He didn't have time to waste facing the nearly six years' worth of demons he'd kept buried in the depths of his heart.

Laura was the top priority and the best place to start was their own territory.

Using the grid pattern and hunting tricks Daryl and Melanie had drilled into him, a shifted Derek Hale raced through his family's property. It was only an hour in when his frustration reached its peak. He had guessed right when he'd thought the rain would wash away any sort of trail. Combined with the numerous times the Hale had to back track as to not be seen by the police and Derek was not a happy werewolf. Sleep deprivation was starting to set in as well as a minute didn't seem to go by without him rubbing agitatedly at his eyes. He swore the mattress from the house was actually calling his name. Despite his obvious objections, his mind logic-ed him into submission and forced him to head back to catch at least a few Zs.

Moments after starting the trek back, something odd struck him. A scent. But it wasn't just one of the hundreds of normal smells found in forested areas. This one was completely out of place amongst the leaves and fallen branches. What bothered him the most was that he was pretty sure he knew who or what it was. It was like when someone heard the beat to a song and they know exactly what it is but draw a blank on any of the lyrics or the name. Almost unconsciously, his feet guided him closer and closer to the source until he was sure he should be standing right on top of it. Figuring the exhaustion was messing with his senses on a whole new level, he decided to just come back after some much needed sleep. A single step was taken before the sound of a wheezing cough shot to his eardrums. Derek moved his slightly muddy boot to the side to see a white piece of plastic sticking out amongst the leaves.

An inhaler.

Derek's mind immediately snapped to the only person he knew need to use the handheld medical device.

"Nope. Scott would _not_ be stupid enough to come out here right now," mumbled to himself while shaking his head and pick up the puffer.

He swiftly disassembled the asthma reliever, a trick the wolf-man had seen Scott do when it jammed, to find the owner's name.

There in bold capital letters was his little brother's name. The Hale tried to calm himself with the idea that maybe the little guy had lost it a year ago or maybe even right after he had left town. Twisting the object, he unhappily found that it had just been replaced less than a week ago.

"Or I could be wrong. Damn that punk!"

Feeling much more awake than he had moments before, the man closed his eyes and let his other senses take over, trying to catch a glimpse of what might have happened.

It took a moment to pick up anything but he eventually got an image of Scott, focusing on something he'd heard while prepping to use his inhaler before dropping to the ground as a mob of deer came bounding out of the trees. One of them must have clipped his hand and sent the plastic lifeline out of his hand. Spinning slowly in a circle, the Hale searched for the location the mini stampede had happened. Derek eventually happened upon an area where the leaves seemed unnaturally rumpled and confirmed it by the hoof prints left behind and Scott's shoe prints as well. He was following the shoe prints, blurred by the recent rainfall, when another familiar fragrance wafted towards him.

"Laura…"

Lying next to the top of a sharp slope was a pale version of Laura Hale. Bared to the world and sliced in half, his sister stared past him with oblivion's white glaze. It felt like someone had swept the ground from underneath him and pushed the air right out of his lungs. The moment everything switch back to reality, an anger the likes of which he'd never known swelled within his chest. The fucking Hunters hadn't even had the decency to bury her like their rules stated. The man had already shifted from anger and was about to let loose a roar that would shake the very foundation of Beacon Hills. Then Derek realized what this was.

They were using his sister, his Alpha, as bait for him.

The Hunters wanted him to rush after them in a blind rage and finish what they started all those years ago.

Well he may look stupid but it was just the way his clothes fit him. **(My dad's catchphrase.)**

Shoving everything down into the depths of his internal 'fortress', Derek slowly morphed back before gingerly picking up what was left of his sister and taking her home for a proper burial.

After breaking into a local business, *Howard's Hardware Store or something like that, and stealing, not really since he left a hundred on the counter, everything he needed, Derek set to work digging up a makeshift grave for Laura. Tears ran down his cheeks the whole time. He didn't break down mid-digging or take moments to sob uncontrollably but he allowed himself the tears. Derek owed Laura that much for how much she'd done for him in the past years. Having dug far enough, the wolf-man pulled his sister, carefully wrapped and tied up, towards the edge and gently placed her down. The Hale easily leapt out of the hole and slowly began to refill it. He would need to call one of his families' connections to procure the last thing he needed to do this properly.

0-0-0-0-0

"I-I don't know what it was. It was like I had all the time in the world to catch the ball," Scott tried to explain his sudden otherworldly skills at lacrosse. "And that's not the only weird thing."

The teen knew he wasn't the smartest guy around, so explaining things in depth was normally a lost cause for him but tried to describe everything else that was going on. The odd conversations he was randomly hearing down a hall full of teenagers and the unusual smells he'd picked up. This seemed to catch his best friend's attention and he jokingly asked about what he smelled. Scott took a couple whiffs of the air before he pointed out an old piece of gum in his friend's pocket. Stiles tried to deny it but humored him all the same only to reveal a lime green piece of mint mojito curled up in its wrapper from the inside pocket of his jacket. Confusion and slight shock covered Stiles' face as he stared at him. He didn't really have the words to answer him and simply mimed a gesture that said 'I don't know either.' and 'What the hell is going on?'

"So all this started with a bite?"

The brunette figured that was about right. What if it was like rabies or something? And his body was sort of flooding adrenaline just before he went into shock or start attacking people or something much worse. The McCall spoke his fears aloud and turned to see Stiles' with an unnaturally serious look on his face. Not a good sign in his book.

"Actually I think I've heard of something like this. It's a specific kind of infection."

"You serious?" the teen asked while stopping mid-step.

"Yeah…I think its call lycanthropy."

Oh God that couldn't be good! He probably couldn't spell the word, much less say it! Those were the worse kinds of medical jargon, right? Scott asked if it was bad and was over taken by fear when his spastic companion said it was the worst. "But it only happens once a month." As grave as Stiles words sounded, his fear flipped itself to confusion. How could an infection only affect you once a month? His brain finally clicked everything together when his friend started talking about the full moon before doing an exaggerated howl. He wanted to smack himself for going along with 'Serious' Stiles. Werewolves? Really? He playfully pushed his pseudo brother's chest and started walking again.

"Hey, you're the one who heard a wolf howling last night."

The crooked jawed teen tried to bring out the real serious Stiles but all he kept getting was werewolf cracks about melting down silver in Woodshop and the full moon that was coming this weekend. He took a couple more steps before stopping to check where they were. This was the right spot but the body was gone and there was still no sign of his inhaler, even with the ample light on his side.

"Maybe the killer moved the body."

"If he did, I hope he left my inhaler," Scott announced as he lowered himself to the ground, hoping for a better chance of finding it. "Those things are like eighty bucks." And the only thing stopping an asthma attack from killing him.

"Two rules, Punk," an all too familiar voice sounded in his ears.

"I know, I know. Never lose my inhaler and never step foot in the woods alone. I've heard it a million times, Jerk Face."

Scott's hand unconsciously went to the jewelry around his neck.

Those two rules had been drilled into his head by his mom and Derek since the whole 'Bear Incident'. It also wasn't uncommon for him to hear Derek's voice, warning or joking wise. Really, depending on what he was doing at the time, he heard any number of the long gone Hales throughout the day. Their voices and personalities seemed to be almost permanently imprinted into his head and he was okay with that. It occurred less and less as time passed but he still heard something every once in a while. People sometimes thought he was crazy when he answered the voices out loud without realizing it, Stiles had grew used to it pretty quickly, but he more or less said screw them and moved on.

Scott's search was interrupted by Stiles poking incessantly at his shoulder. The McCall was going to ask him why he wasn't helping when he noticed the spazzy boy pointing behind them. He followed the finger to a would-be giant of a man, arms crossed and usual half smirk in place, clad in all black that had to be a hallucination. Whatever was happening to him was screwing over his mind big time. But why would the illusion appear older? Scruffier? Derek couldn't really be… "D-Derek?" His voice was shaking uncontrollably and it felt as if something within him was faintly buzzing at the imaginary person's presence.

"It's really me, Little Brother."

The teen let out shocked, sort of choked, laugh before sprinting towards the man. He stopped just short of Derek and just sort of took in the fact that it was really him. The world record for the biggest smile couldn't compete with Scott's at that moment. Without a second thought, he launched himself forward and tried to hug the life out of his big brother, who returned it just the same. And he was solid, completely and wholly there. They pulled apart and Scott immediately latched onto the taller man's shoulders, afraid he'd somehow disappear in an instant like he did years ago.

"You're really here," the teen laughed out in disbelief.

"I made a promise. Figured it was about time I kept it, if that's okay?" Derek answered, feeling himself more grounded at that moment than the past week since Laura had left. A sharp stab hit him when he thought of her. How was he going to tell Scott that Laura was gone? He tried to take a deep breath to calm himself and think when the smell of wolf attacked his nose, the source being none other than his little brother but how was that possible? Laura had been dead for hours when he found her and Scott's wolf smelled so faint he couldn't have been bitten more than half a day ago. Things just got a lot more complicated and would also explain why his sister's Alpha status hadn't been passed on to him upon death. The Hunters may have chopped her in half and used her for bait but another wolf had gotten to her first and was now turning people at random. Definitely more complicated.

An interrupting cough jolted the two back to reality and the pair turned to the only other person out there.

"Oh yeah," Scott said, realizing he'd forgot about his twitchy friend. Wrapping an arm around the taller male's neck, he dragged him towards the poster child for the effects of ADHD in modern teens. "Derek, my best friend Stiles. Stiles, this is Derek Hale."

"So you're the legendary Stiles? Nice to finally meet you," the man said holding out his hand.

His first impression of the kid Scott hadn't gone a day without talking about was that he seemed a bit off. Stiles seemed like your basic gangly teenager who looked like he didn't eat much but probably packed food away like Derek had at his age. When Stiles finally appeared to have work up the courage to shake his hand, while he didn't smell of fear it didn't mean he wasn't afraid, his grip would have been pretty good if his fingers weren't twitching so much. His heart beat was so erratic it might have actually been a challenge to tell if he was lying and made him question how he was still among the living with how it seemed pause periodically before pumping twice the normal rate. His eyes though were the most disconcerting. He had cop eyes, a trait he probably got from his dad if he remembered right, that seemed to looked at every little detail and file it away to look at later for further examination.

The wolf-man wasn't sure if he was going to like this kid but he'd at least try to tolerate him for Scott.

"So Derek, you up for having dinner at my house? Mom's off tonight and she's gonna freak when she sees you again!"

A very real laugh exploded out of his chest before he could control it. This was what had been missing all those years in New York. A pack wasn't complete without all its members and Scott had certainly earned his place in it.

"Calm down, Half-Pint. I'm gonna have to take a rain check on the dinner. Trying to keep at least somewhat of a low profile. The local gossip hounds will have a field day if they find out one of the last Hales are in town." Amazingly, Scott actually pouted at him, which made him roll his eyes and try and placate him before he brought out the big guns aka did little his eye thing. "Don't worry, I'm gonna be in town for a bit. There are some things I've got to take care of but I'll make sure to scare your mom and all that. Besides, you have to tell what's changed around here. Any girls catch your eye yet?" A deep red flush enveloped the teen's face while a giant goofy grin spread across his face and scratch embarrassedly at the back of his neck. Oh, he was so going to enjoy messing with him.

**ASDFASDFASDF**

**So hopefully this gets the reaction my last chapter did.**

**Sorry for it being kind of late. I was kind of backed up on my reading(between you and me I'm still not caught up).**

**Howard's Hardware Store – to those too young to know, this is a reference to the original Teen Wolf movie. I don't know if that is the exact name(you'd be surprised how hard that shit is to find) but that was what I was referencing.**

**Finally, I updated my earlier chapters a bit. Nothings really changed, just changed the years that I messed up and added some scene breaks.**


	7. Wolf Moon Part 2

**Here we go again.**

**Disclaimer: I just own the plot, nothing else unless Laura technically counts as an OC since we really know nothing about her.**

**ASDFASDFASDF**

'_Best. Day. Ever,' _Scott thought to himself as he flipped the clinic's 'OPEN' sign to 'CLOSED'.

The teen never really thought he'd experience a day better than the first time he met Derek but this one took the cake.

He'd met Allison Argent, who he was convinced had to be an angel or whatever was better than that. She had invaded his thoughts since the moment he first saw her and really couldn't find it in himself to hate it. And it wasn't even the fact that she was astoundingly beautiful, though he would never complain about that. It was everything; her slight shyness as the new girl that hid assured confidence the boy felt in the way she spoke, eyes that drew him in and made him lost to the world, a voice that seemed to hypnotize him with every word, and her smile that he was pretty sure literally made his heart stop and work overtime in the same moment. She was something beyond his comprehension and this was the one time he wanted to learn anything and everything about someone so bad.

Then there was the fact that he may or may not have impressed her with his lacrosse skills. The brunette had worked his ass off the past summer and was finally seeing some results, in more ways than one he hoped. Now if only the teen could figure out why everything had seemed to be moving so slow during practice and how to keep making it happen, he'd be set.

The icing on all of it was the fact that Derek Hale, his big brother and the person he looked up to, had kept his promise and finally came home.

Life was looking very excellent at that moment, though he really needed to ask Derek about Laura next time he saw him.

An alarm went off on his phone, telling Scott it was time to change the bandage on his side. He'd already set out everything he would need on a table in the hallway and just grabbed it on his way to the bathroom. Blood had almost soaked through the once white bandages the teenager found after lifting part of his shirt. He was pretty sure he'd need to go to the hospital if it was still bleeding like that tomorrow. With great care, the minor slowly peeled the tape off, wincing just a bit as the stickiness of the tape and dried blood pulled at his skin. Most people expected that just a day after being bit by an animal there to be an easily identifiable mark. That was not the case for him. Instead of deep teeth marks and the slightly inflamed areas around said marks that were there the night before, Scott found only smooth, completely unblemished skin. He poked and prodded the area in confusion as if it would magically reappear but nothing happened.

He wondered if the day could get any weirder or better.

Turns out things could definitely get weirder as he dragged food towards the back to feed the cats. Five seconds in the room and every cat was hissing, shrinking away and just generally freaking out at his mere presence, so he decided to leave a note for the Doc to check on them the next morning when he locked up. He grinned a bit as he thought about his new duty Deaton had given him after his birthday last week. Scott asked him why he didn't trust him to lock up when he was fifteen; he responded with, "I've never questioned my trust in you, Scott. Just now no one else will question it either."

Doctor Deaton, he found it easier just to call him Doc, was by far the greatest boss someone could ask for and he would never regret the first day he met the vet.

_Just a few months after Derek and Laura left, Stile's mom's 'little tired' moments as she put them took a turn for the worse. She was sick in a really bad way and things weren't looking very good for his second mom. Stiles wasn't taking it very well either if not eating for days and the constant dark rings under his eyes meant anything. For the first time since he'd know Stiles, his friend was truly scared, they all were. So his best bud was spending as much time as he could with her and Scott wasn't sure if he should interrupt that. The only 'problem' with that was that the shaggy haired boy didn't actually have any friends besides his twitchy best friend. Sure, there were kids he talked to at school but they weren't really what one would call 'outside school' friends. Deciding to just head to the park, Scott started walking only to feel something wet press up against his neck and loud sniffing noise making him spin around._

_A large, monster of a dog that kind of reminded him of Scooby-Doo was standing there. Its head was easily level with his and its fur was the strangest blue-gray color with black spots dotted everywhere. He stood perfectly still, just like the Sheriff had taught him and Stiles to do with stray animals, as the giant hound sniffed him a couple more times to make sure he wasn't a threat. Once it seemed to decide everything was cool, the beast started licking his face with a tongue easily the size of his hand. He had just laughed loudly and wiped the slobber from his face before slowly scratching its long neck. Scott had never really been able to have a dog before. Max, Scott refused to call the man Dad after what he did to his mom, was horribly allergic to most animals and they couldn't really afford one after he left so pets weren't really an option at his house. Oddly enough, the giant had a thick leather collar wrapped around his neck with a leash attached and was lazily dragging it behind him. His name turned out to be Thor and he very much belonged to someone but Scott wasn't really the best with addresses, which was more Stiles area of expertise. Slowly grabbing the leash, the minor carefully got the dog walking and went with his original plan of walking around the park. Someone was bound to recognize the big guy there._

_The pair barely made it two blocks before bumping into someone as they rounded the corner. It was a rather stout looking black man who looked beyond relieved to see Thor. Doctor Deaton introduced himself and explained that an owner had stopped him for a moment to ask a question as he was leaving to walk the huge canine and before he knew it, Thor had slipped from his grip and taken off. Scott had always seen himself as being very trusting person, he always wanted to look for the good in people, minus Max. But you don't hang out with the sheriff's son for as long as he had and not pick up a little bit of suspiciousness. Thor belonged to someone and Scott didn't like the idea of just handing him over. Funnily enough, the Doc was completely okay with him walking Thor back to the clinic, even gave him five whole dollars, that was a lot of money for a ten year old, for helping him catch the big guy and free reign to come by anytime to visit the animals. He thought that was the coolest thing ever and immediately rushed to the store for Jolly Ranchers, Stiles' mom's favorite candy, before going to the hospital to tell them about it._

After that, any time he couldn't visit Stiles and Mrs. Stilinski, Scott was helping Deaton at the clinic until the good doctor just went ahead and hired him. The Doc had said he had a natural sort of ease with animals that was very uncommon. He took great pride in that and had thought quite often that maybe he would like to be a Vet when he got older.

The sudden frantic beating from the front doors snapped him out of his mind. Scott slowly looked around the corner to see a soaking wet angel. There was a lot of babbling, she'd accidently hit a dog, and crying, which definitely he hated, before calming her down enough to ask where the dog was so he could send for help. Allison instead grabbed his arm and pulled him to the trunk of her car. It was quiet when she popped it but as soon as the hatch was open, the dog was growling up a storm with her fur bristled making the angel jump.

"You okay?" Scott asked, wrapping an arm around the girl's shoulders to calm her. "She's just frightened."

"That makes two of us," Allison replied with a shaky voice.

"Let me see if I have any better luck."

The boy slowly moved forward and lowered himself till he was level with the dog. Against what specialists say, Scott couldn't help but look straight into the canine's eyes, not in challenge but to convey that she was safe and he was here to help her. A couple seconds, and an odd tingling in his eyes, later she lowered her head and whimpered in pain. The now rain soaked male carefully carried the wounded animal to one of the tables in the back and began to examine for what was wrong.

"I think her leg is broken. I've seen the Doctor do plenty of splints. I can do it myself and give her painkiller for now."

He turned to see Allison's confirmation, only to see her shivering and rubbing her arms for warmth. The word 'idiot' in the dictionary had his picture next to it for not seeing that sooner. He quickly offered one of his spare shirts he packed for after practice. She was a bit reluctant at first but gave in when he said it really wasn't any trouble and walked into the next room to change. He didn't mean to look through the door's window, the blinds were up for some unknown reason, but his heart skipped a beat or two as he took in the naked flesh of the angel's back. Luckily, the dog sat up a bit and brought his attention to a pair of almost accusing eyes.

"What?" Scott asked defensively as the dog continued to stare. "I didn't see anything." Even he knew how guilty he sounded but ignored in favor of starting the splint. The teen was just finishing up when Allison walked back in. She thanked him for helping her and started talking about how badly she reacted. Not liking her looking down on herself, he kept her talking before finally making her laugh about how he would of reacted. "So…it looks like she's gonna live. And I'm pretty sure she'll let you pet her now, if you want?"

Allison's first thought was no. The way her night was going, she'd touch the dog's fur and make it burst into flames. The cute boy standing next to her though was doing an A plus job on raising her slightly drowned spirits. When she finally answered him, he encouraged her for 'fear' that the dog might sue if she didn't. It was a terrible joke but with the way he was smiling at her made it impossibly adorable. Steeling herself, the girl slowly started running her fingers through the soft fur. "See? She likes you." That seemed to be true but the way he said it seemed like he was talking about something else and would have made her blush if her cheeks weren't already red from crying. When she finally pulled her hand back, the Argent found an amazing set of brown orbs focused on her.

"What?" she asked quietly.

"Sorry," he answered apologetically, "You have an eyelash on your cheek."

Allison suddenly wished a gaping hole would open in the Earth and swallow her whole. Of course, the first boy she seemed to have an interest in saw her like this. Wet, splotchy, and a total mess in the complete sense of the word. She sloppily wiped at her face, trying to save some kind of face. A hand slowly rose into her view and caught her attention. The moment his skin touched hers, some kind of electricity pulsed throughout her body and made everything tingle. The angel had never been so glad to have missed something on her face. An uncharacteristically, shy smile spread across her face involuntarily.

"Thanks."

He simply nodded as a captivatingly lop-sided grin appeared and offered to walk her to her car. Thankfully the torrential rain had finally ceased and they slowly walked to her vehicle. She reluctantly opened her car door and turned to thank Scott again to see him bouncing nervously from one foot to the other. "So um…I was wondering…I mean…" Allison wondered if boy ever stopped being impossibly cute. It was like trying to stare down a puppy! "Is it really family night on Friday or do you think maybe you'd like to go to that party with me?" It took everything in her not to burst and scream out 'YES!'. Sure she had been on dates with other guys before but it had never been anything like this. This was definitely something she wanted to explore but her Aunt Kate taught her to never give too much away all at once.

"Family Night was a total lie," she replied as casual as possible.

"So is that a yes? You'll go?"

"Definitely yes," Allison answered with an almost painfully wide smile before sliding into her car and driving away.

Scott waited for her to be a good distance away before screaming, "BEST. DAY. EVER!"

The stupid grin didn't even leave his face as he crawled into bed for the night.

0-0-0-0-0

Scott spent the whole of the next day trying to figure out how he'd ended in the woods that morning and what the hell he'd been running from after he awoke, which ended with an impromptu swim in a freezing cold pool.

The teen had just finished packing away his stuff in his locker before practice when out of nowhere the door slams shut. Jackson Whittmore, captain of the Beacon Hill Cyclones and the unquestioned most popular guy in school, was standing there glaring down at him like he was the cause for all the world's problems.

"Alright, Little Man. How about you tell me where you're getting your 'juice'?"

"What?" Scott asked, utterly confused why the guy was asking about juice.

"Where. Are. You. Getting. Your. 'Juice'?

Again with the juice; Jackson must have some kind of post-practice drink ritual when he gets home. But why would he need to know where his mom picked up their pineapple juice?

"My mom does all the grocery shopping."

That was apparently not the answer he was looking for because the guy started ripping into him about yesterday's practice, sounding angrier with each passing second. The McCall boy finally got what he was talking about when the words 'chemical boost' came into play.

"Oh! You mean steroids," the brunette answered with understanding but that got him thinking, "Are you on steroids?"

Again, that wasn't the answer Jackson was looking for, shown by him shoving the smaller male's body up against the lockers and asking what was wrong with him. A kind of bubble started forming in his chest as he thought over all the weird stuff that had over the past two days. Once it stopped expanding, it suddenly shot up and exploded out of his mouth with absolutely no control.

"What's going on with me? You really want to know?! Well, so would I because I can see, hear, and smell things that I shouldn't be able to see, hear and smell! I do things that should be impossible! I'm sleep walking three miles into the woods! And I'm pretty much convinced that I'm totally out of my Freaking Mind!"

Scott felt thoroughly relieved to have gotten all that out in the universe. Maybe that was why Stiles rambled all the time, too much going on in his brain and he just needed to let things out. Evidently, anything he said wasn't what the Whittmore wanted to hear as he accused him of trying to be funny. With a final warning about finding out what was up with him and a powerful slam into the locker right beside his head, Jackson took his leave and Scott knew life just got that much more complicated for him. Taking a moment to try and figure out where his great day from yesterday went, he sighed loudly and took off for practice.

0-0-0-0-0

Stiles made Olympic Sprinters look like turtles as he burst through his front door and up the stairs to his room, taking two steps at a time. Why the need to rush through his empty home like Jason Voorhees was about to shove his machete up his ass? Nothing much, just the fact that his best friend was bit by a FUCKING WEREWOLF! It should be impossible for something like that to happen as this was the really, real world. Werewolves, as awesome as them being real would be, were meant for movies, books, comics and the occasional campfire ghost story; not reality. Only problem was that it was the one explanation that made sense and there was a giant neon sign to point out errors every time he tried to contradict it. Honestly, more people should have notice something was up with the half-twist tuck, gymnastics information attained after Wikipedia devoured hours of his time, that the possible werewolf pulled off with ease.

"No, Stiles, there is no way on nice, supernatural-free Earth that this is possible," the twitchy teen said aloud as if that would solidify the statement as fact.

His resolve lasted all of twenty seconds as he sat down at his desk, covered with books, print outs and the like from the night before. All of which began piling up since his dad got the call about the wolf hair from the fiber analyses. Being raised by a Sheriff helped immensely in his task of finding 'legitimate' information on lycanthropy, allowing him to cull through all the bullshit and zero in on the traits and facts shared from myth to myth. Jerking his head to look at the clock on his laptop, he realized that he still had a few hours before the party. Enough time to double, possibly triple, check over everything, just to make sure.

So wrapped up in the rescanning of all his data, wincing every time he was reminded of all the ways to kill a werewolf, Stiles nearly jumped out of his skin when someone started pounding away at his bedroom door. It had to be Scott as his dad would more than likely be working late of the dead girl case and he'd texted him not long after started his second once over. Panic set in as the attention deficient male realized that he had no idea what he was going to say. How does someone go about explaining to his best friend that a primal force, neither of which could begin to understand, was locked away inside him and wanted to rip everything apart if it got out? Deciding to wing it like he usually did, Stiles awkwardly walked over to the door and yanked the it open. Standing on the other side was Scott, a dreamy smile stretched across his face, probably because of his date with Allison that night. That was definitely going to need to change soon with a certain celestial body being at its shiniest within just a few hours.

"You gotta see this thing."

His mouth immediately took off, totally out of his control, telling his friend about how he'd been up all night researching. Stiles probably should have been embarrassed when his best bud asked him how much Adderall he'd had that day but there were more pressing matters at hand.

"What? Is this about the body? Did they find out who did it?" the shaggy haired boy rapidly fired out as he slid off his backpack and plopped down on his friend's bed.

"No, they're still questioning people, even Derek Hale."

Scott felt an annoyed rumbling building inside him at the thought of the police thinking Derek was a murderer. His big brother could never hurt anyone, let alone kill a person. Stiles seemed to notice his annoyance because he was quick to point out it was probably more due to the fact that the body was found on Hale property than suspecting the frightening man of murder. The rumbling seemed to be quailed for the moment but he still felt his blood heated by the topic.

"Look, never mind that right now, there's something I need to tell you. Remember that joke I made the other day… Well it's not a joke anymore…"

The McCall simple gave his usual I-have-no-idea-what-you're-talking-about look and asked what the heck he was trying to say. His friend then started a long-winded fast paced lecture about the wolf he'd heard in the wood, which he now seemed to believe him for some strange reason. He actually learned some oddly interesting things like the fact that wolves howled to signal their location to the rest of the pack.

"So if you heard one that means there could have been others nearby, maybe a whole pack."

A whole pack of wolves? That was big news if his 'No wolves in Cali for the last sixty years' comment from the day before held any value. Stiles should seriously consider going on a game show or something. With that 'Vault of Useless Information' locked away in his brain, he'd make a killing. Shaking his head to get the picture of his best friend being ridiculous on national television, Scott asked if he was serious about the pack of wolves. "No, werewolves." The brunette could feel his face morph into a look of utter confusion. He was used his friend's unique form of insanity but werewolves was taking it to the next level. His annoyance level spiked again. He asked Stiles if he was honestly wasting his time with this. He needed to be at home, trying to figure out what the hell he was supposed to do on his date with Allison. Then his buddy started using logic. Started pointing out all the things he saw during tryouts, things he himself found hard to believe. Scott did his best to play it off like it was nothing but Stiles was a master of seeing through him.

"No! You made an incredible shot! The way you moved! Your speed! Your reflexes! People can't just suddenly do that overnight! And there's the vision, and the senses, and don't think I haven't noticed you don't need your inhaler anymore!"

Something began building in his chest again and it was much stronger than simple annoyance. It didn't feel right so he chose to try and escape, offhandedly saying they would talk the next day. Scott had to leave before something bad happened. Stiles would have none of that and started talking about the about the full moon being that night. It was almost scary how sure he sounded. Whatever was growing inside him chose that moment to poke a hole through his self-control.

"What are you trying to do?! I just made first line! I've got a date with a girl I can't believe wants to go out with me! The person I consider just as much my brother as you is finally back after being gone for years! Everything in my life is somehow perfect, why are you trying to ruin that?!"

The next few moments were a blur for him as Stiles talked about 'helping' him. That he was cursed and needed to worry about 'bloodlust' and 'making the change'. He didn't want to hear any it, didn't want to hear the so sure tone his best friend used. The feeling, which he was now sure had to be panic and anger, simmered to a boil when the spazzy boy told him he needed to cancel his date with Allison. He asked if he was serious and went to grab for the phone out of the other teen's hands. When his friend refused, everything bubbled over the top. Within seconds, he had Stiles pinned to the wall, his hand reared back to attack and a blood red haze started to filter into his vision. His skin felt like it was burning as he glared at the fearful expression on his friend's face. That look made the haze recede for a moment and allowed him to take out everything on the computer chair behind him. Scott gasped for breath as he forced himself to calm down and turn back to Stiles. Guilt he'd only known once in his life with Ryan swallowed him as he looked from Stiles to the chair he had basically just attacked and realized he nearly did the same to his brother in all but blood. He back away slowly and stuttered out an apology before grabbing his backpack and taking off, all the while wondering what had just happened.

Stiles wouldn't tell him about the claw marks on the chair until the next morning.

0-0-0-0-0

Minus making first line, today was not Scott McCall's day. The most popular guy in the school wants to destroy him; nearly attacked his best friend; and he about lost his very first chance at driving right before his very first date because of an embarrassing misunderstanding. All those facts reverberated in his mind as he pulled up to Allison's above average sized house. His nervousness wasn't making any of it better. He checked his watch again real fast to make sure he wasn't late before nervously tapping on the steering wheel, eyes locked on the Argent's large double doors. Scott knew Allison Argent was beautiful without even trying, but when she walked out the front door, smiling like _she _was the lucky one, his mind wiped clean of all his worries and he used the word Peter Hale constantly used when describing his mom.

"Gorgeous…"

The drive was filled with easy conversation as he asked about how she liked Beacon Hills so far. He even managed to make her laugh a couple times before they finally pulled up to the party. Lydia's house was already blaringly loud and overcrowded and by the way some people were already swaying on their feet, lots of alcohol had been served. Allison took charge, something he apparently found very attractive, and guided them through the massive teenage horde to the pool area in the backyard where people were dancing. Suddenly, the nervousness came back at the thought of dancing, he may not be as bad as Stiles but he wasn't better by much. A familiar buzzing feeling hit, making him look around for the source to see Derek, standing in a back corner of the yard by a fire pit. He found it a bit odd for his brother to be at a high school party but shrugged it off before giving a small wave in greeting. Turning to Allison and grabbing her hand, he said, "Come with me, there's someone I want you to meet." Of course, when he turned back around Derek was nowhere to be seen. He spun his head around trying to regain sight of him but found nothing. Rolling his eyes, his big brother was doing his disappearing act again, he caught sight of something scaling across the roof her Lydia's garage.

A slight squeeze to his hand brought him back to the beauty standing beside him. Allison was smiling at him and he stopped worrying again. Before he knew it, the angel had dragged him over to where people were dancing and they started moving to the music. It was surprisingly not awkward dancing with Allison; if he was honest it was more than a little arousing. Their bodies were mere inches apart from each other as they danced. She really seemed to like running her fingers along the nape of his neck which felt almost entirely too good for words. His lips were ghosting barely an inch away from touching hers when a random bout of pain struck him and his heart started pounding loudly in his ears.

0-0-0-0-0

Derek watched what was finally happening to Scott calmly from his perch in a nearby tree. His little brother was doing surprisingly well with his inexperienced restraint. Most newly turned wolves lost control within half an hour of the moon reaching the sky but he'd managed a couple hours before caving to the orb's power. He watched closely as the cub staggered through the horde of bodies in his way. Now was the time to act. The wolf-man jumped from his branch and walked casually around to the front, making it just in time to see Scott drive off. Putting on his usually charming smile, the man walked up behind the Argent girl. "Allison," he said casually, announcing his presence and trying hard to ignore the fact that she smelled of wild berries, similarly to Kate. When the girl spun around and gave him a strange look. "I'm a friend of Scott's." She gave a quick look over her shoulder at Scott's car disappearing into the distance before looking back at him. The werewolf figured he should introduce himself soon or she might walk back into the party. "I'm Derek."

It hadn't really taken very much to convince her to let him give her a lift home, after making sure Stiles saw Allison sliding into his car. She didn't give off a very trusting vibe, so he chalked it up to the fact that she felt more than secure in her ability to ward him off and get away. Just like Kate. He mentally scolded to himself for thinking about the witch that had taken nearly everything from him again. There were much more pressing matters to be dealt with. More than a bit of luck was on his side that night as Allison had failed to remember taking off her jacket when he dropped her off. It would be more than perfect bait for Scott. This was if he was right about Stiles being a moron and rushing off after his little brother, who was probably freaking out on an epic scale at the moment. That and a full moon did not a good combo make.

But Derek knew Scott all too well.

Even with the unnatural changes he was experiencing that night, he'd be more worried others than himself, namely Allison and Stiles. Said moron, who knew Scott's nature probably even better than he did, would more than likely tell the newbie were-beast about what happened after he left and the wolf would act accordingly. It would assume the wolf-man was a threat and track him down, thus making him all the more predictable.

So he laid out his trap to match the situation appropriately, just like Peter had taught him.

His car was left in an open area at the reserve's entrance.

Marked a trail easily by dragging Allison's jacket along the ground next to his, making sure to go slow as to leave a stronger scent.

And finally, climbing halfway up a tree to hang the jacket and let her scent waft down to cover the whole area for max confusion.

Then all he had to do was wait a good distance back and watch it all unfold.

Derek had always thought Scott would make a good wolf. He had even convinced Peter to help him talk to his dad about letting the McCalls in on their secret a week before the fire. But what he was seeing was astounding. The wolf-man hadn't had to wait for long before the cub showed up, fully shift and under the moon's influence, and from his vantage point he could see everything. His movements, the way he naturally dropped to all fours for maximum speed, his semi-conscious use of his new sense to stay on track. It was extraordinary and entirely unheard of for bitten wolf to have such raw talent. Once the cub got close to the source of Allison's scent, the man began move in, years of practice and the full moon keeping Scott from noticing his presence.

"Where is she?"

Again, shock flooded him at how in control his brother seemed to be.

"She's safe. From you."

Scott was completely caught off guard as he tossed them to the ground and began to roll, the newly turned werewolf trying and failing to overpower him. When the tumbling came to an end, he easily maneuvered Scott up against a tree and held him there. That was when he heard it. Three sets of feet crunching leaves and sticks as they stalked the woods. Hunters. His brother asked him desperately where Allison was but he told him to shut up. The born-wolf took a whiff of the air and smelled the out-of-place tang of metal in the air before turning back to his captive. "Too late, they're already here. Run!" he barked out before taking off. He'd hoped Scott would immediately follow him but when he looked back after hearing a flash bang arrow ignite he saw the boy stumbling around from the jolt to his enhanced eyes. His wolf roared in anger as seconds later an arrow pierced his brother's arm, making him scream in pain.

Chris Argent, veteran hunter extraordinaire and Kate's older brother, stood there with two of the random henchmen hunters the main Hunter families kept around.

He waited impatiently, forcing down the need to protect his pack, for the older man's next move.

"Take him."

He immediately started circling around to their backs. 'Take him' only meant one thing to hunters. Torture. His blood boiled at the image of Scott dangling from chains as they cut, shocked, and beat him for information until he was used up before finally finishing him off or using him as bait, just like Laura. The image of both of them sliced in half burned his mind as he tossed the so called 'trained' hunters away. He was careful not to kill any of them, no reason to give them an actual cause to hunt him, but he made sure they would be feeling everything for the next few days. While Chris was distracted by his minions, Derek ran for Scott, painfully breaking the arrow pinning him, and dragged him away. It wasn't really an appropriate time but he got a slight laugh out of the younger boy when he pointed out it was weird not being able to just carry him like when he was tiny.

Not long after escaping whoever the guys with guns were, Scott was able to run on his own. The pain in his arm lessened with every step he took. That made him realize what had just happened. He'd been shot. Someone had shot him and he didn't even know the first reason why. His breath started coming out in short gasps and sweat rolled into his eyes as his heart jackhammered against his chest. He'd gone over a day with no attacks and they chose now to come back? The brunette soon felt himself tripping up before falling near a tree. His inhaler was still in his jacket at home so all he could do was push himself up, lean on the tree and hope it would pass. Once again, any pain he felt faded rapidly and his breathing evened itself out. And when he went to wipe sweat from his eyes, he realized that the horrible face that had stared back at him in the mirror was gone.

Scott looked at his big brother who was looking around in every direction as if he expected those men to follow them.

"Who were they?"

"Hunters. Their kind have been hunting us for centuries."

Their kind? He didn't even know what he was! Was he still Scott McCall, the slightly awkward boy that worked at an animal clinic, or was he a monster, the one who stared back at him in the mirror with razor sharp teeth and glowing eyes? If he really was a werewolf had everything else Stiles said true? His eyes started to water at the thought of half the stuff his friend talked about as being real. Would the full moon continue to control him like it had that night? Would it force him to hunt, to kill those most precious to him? Could he keep himself in check for the rest of his life? Everything began to press down on him, crushing him so fast his vision started to swim with black dots. He tried to flinch away when a hand rested on his chest in a calming gesture until he felt the familiar presence of his brother.

"Calm down, Little Brother. You need to be awake and aware if we run into the Hunters again."

His voice was so calm, so assured with their current situation, none of which he felt.

"I'm scared, Derek," he whispered, unable to keep tremble of fear from his voice.

"You'd be stupid if you weren't but don't worry. We're brothers, Scott, remember? And it will be a cold day in hell before I let anyone take my family away."

It was the first moment of peace he'd felt since the party. If there was anyone he could count on and trust, it was his big brother.

Neither wolf was aware of the burning red eyes staring down at them from a shadowy hideaway.

**{WARNING: this next part is done under the assumption that everyone knows who the Alpha is. That is all and I more than likely will never do this story interruption thing again.}**

Peter Hale was thrilled with what he'd seen that night. Like Derek, the man had known Scott would excel as a wolf and _his_ cub had been proving it the last few hours. But he would need to wait for the next full moon before he could call the child. First, his potential needed to be harnessed and Peter knew his nephew would make sure to start training him soon. He also knew that if he could get Scott to follow him, Derek would not be far behind in joining him. The Alpha resisted the urge to howl in triumph. For now, he needed to stay hidden and plot out his plan for his first target. Maybe he could include Scott in the plan, make it into a sort of bonding time like they'd had years ago.

**ASDFASDFASDF**

**Well that certainly got away from me. Hopefully you guys enjoyed my monster chapter. Don't get used to it, I have no idea if it is even possible for me to hit this kind of lightning twice.**

**I'm so sorry if the 'Stiles telling Scott' part was kind of erratic. My computer froze while I was working on that part and I forgot to save so I lost the entire bit.**

**Now if you would kindly review, they would be much appreciated.**


	8. Second Chance at First Line Part 1

**Okay so I was wrong, I hit lightning twice. I have no idea what's happening I just keep ending up losing control. **

**I'm actually kind of nervous about this chapter. Sadly, my last one didn't seem to go over too well with you guys and for that I'm sorry. Big thank you to the people who reviewed though.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything.**

**ASDFASDFASDF**

Newly turned werewolf Scott McCall stumbled through the quickly emptying halls as he made his way to the locker room for practice.

The brunette's life was taking yet another turn for the jacked up and bullshit insane.

After the night of the full moon, Derek had promised to start helping him learn control soon but that there were some things he needed to take care of first. His brother had seemed to take on a depressed air as he spoke which worried him. The teen had wanted to ask what was going on but couldn't find the words. He hadn't seen hide or hair of him the whole weekend afterwards. Really though, he hadn't reflected on what had happened Friday night that weekend. He'd been too busy sleeping off the aftermath of his new supernatural monthly to really think about anything for the next two days.

Then Monday rolled around and he finally felt up to taking stock of everything that had occurred since the night Stile dragged him out to find the body.

He'd idiotically followed his insane best friend to find a dead body and actually found it.

He was later attacked by a giant furry monster that had turned out to be werewolf.

He'd quite possibly met the girl of his dreams, was reunited with his big brother, got a date with aforementioned dream girl, and even made First Line.

Then the full moon came out during his date and his inner monster pushed its way to the surface, forcing him to abandon Allison before tracking down his own brother because his instincts told him Derek, who was also a werewolf who'd more than likely turned him, was a threat to her.

To top all of that off, there were apparently a group of people who thought it was there mission to kill werewolves and did it for a living. How does someone even live off that?!

The teen wolf had no idea what to do about the supernatural crap but the first thing he planned on was apologizing to Allison and begging, on hands and knees if necessary, for another shot with her. A busy school day and the words never really quite coming to him prevented him from actually confronting her until the end of the day where he decided to bite the bullet and talk to his angel. There was no hands and knees action but it had taken some serious convincing and telling her the truth when she asked if she would regret it. When she said yes to a second chance it was all he could do not to howl for joy. Something was genuinely going his way after everything that was happening.

But because life hadn't thrown enough his way or it needed to make up for the handout it had just given him, her dad turned out to be the Hunter that had shot him.

So now he was shuffling through an emptying locker room, slowly pulling off his gear that had suddenly become too confining.

And that was how Stiles found him.

Stiles had left his best friend alone all weekend to recuperate from the effects of the full moon. Apparently, the celestial body was like a werewolf energy drink, they felt great while it affected their system but once it was gone, a crash was inevitable. But while Scott slept, Stiles, being the amazing friend he was, continued to research anything and everything to do with lycanthropy. Of course, all that information meant squat come Monday when his bud spent the whole day trying to figure out what to do with Allison. Anyone else would have tried to point out that he had bigger things to worry about but not him. No, Stiles saw things for what they were, which was Scott in head over heels for the new girl and wanting one spec of normalcy in his new, hairier life style.

It was time to see how he was doing on the forgiveness front because the way he was acting was not a good sign.

"Did you apologize to Allison?"

It was a bit blunt but a necessary bluntness.

"Yeah…"

"So is she giving you a second chance or…"

Stiles wanted to be hopeful but Scott's demeanor was not reassuring.

"Yeah…"

He cheered loudly at his friend's good fortune, heavens knew he needed it. After pointing out everything was good, he'd started heading out for practice when his friend stopped him. "No…" Best friend say what? When he asked him what was wrong, his friend's breath started coming out in gasps, not unlike one of his asthma attacks which were supposed to be cured. "Remember the Hunters? Her dad was one of them…" Oh God, his luck could not seriously be that bad. No teenager's luck could possibly be that much of an epic fail.

"Her dad?"

"Shot me…"

"Allison's father?"

"With a crossbow…"

Did the universe really have THAT MUCH against his best friend? Was he Hannibal Lector, Adolf Hitler and Jack the Ripper all rolled up into one in a past life? Did he try the dead baby joke about nailing a baby to a hundred trees and succeed? No, there was no way Stiles was hearing this right. All the extra Adderall he'd been taking the past five days was just adding up and addling his brilliant mind. But just to make sure…

"Allison's fath-"

"YES, HER FATHER!"

Cue the imminent breakdown. The spazzy boy was on him in a second, smacking at his face a couple times to try and keep him from becoming a total mess. Normally, he might have let his friend be entitled to falling to pieces, dude had some serious rights to do that, had circumstances been different but they weren't. Stiles needed to keep Scott aware not only for the werepup's own mental stability but to make sure the beast lurking inside him didn't decide it would be a nice time to come say 'Hi!' to the world. There was relief for both of them when Scott said he was pretty sure Mr. Argent, now dubbed Werewolf Harbinger of Death, didn't recognize him. All progress was lost when he asked if Allison knew which sent the boy into an unintelligible ramble about how she was going to kill him. He mentally thanked whoever was responsible for having cleared out the locker room, thus insuring no one saw the scene he was presently a part of. Knowing that Mr. Overbite was probably pacing around inside Scott's body, waiting for the right moment, Stiles started picking up all of his friend's dropped gear and started shoving it into him while telling him to focus on lacrosse. He actually seemed to relax at the sound of their favorite sport so he took that as the go ahead to head out to the field.

As it turned out, Stiles was able to actually participate in today's practice. The only problem he could see was that it was an offensive drill that put everyone against the Beacon Hill Cyclone's star player, Jackson. And even if someone were to manage to get past Supreme King of Douchebaggery, they had to compete with one of the Top Five goalies in the state of California, Danny Mahealani. Finnstock may as well have asked them to break into Fort Knox surrounded by the Great Wall of China. His point was proven even more by the way Jackson laid waste to all who came within reach. When it came to Scott's turn, who had somehow skipped ahead of him, Stiles was kind of worried as his friend was still drifting off thinking about Allison's dad and possibly Allison. Suffice to say, the guy took off at a half-hearted pace before getting knocked firmly on his ass. He knew things were going to get even worse as Jackson seemed to taunt him and Coach started ripping into him by comparing him to his dead grandmother. One of his theories, once again, proved correct as Scott retook his position in line before taking off in a charge. His friend's attack was brutal as Jackson was the one ploughed into the ground this time, clutching at his shoulder in pain but Stiles focus was on Scott who was grasping at his helmet like he was trying to hold something in. He was next to his fallen friend in an instant.

"I can't control it, Stiles… It's happening!" Scott warned, his voice shifting as the teeth in his mouth grew.

Stiles didn't think twice about pulling Scott to his feet and pulling him towards the school while everyone else was distracted with human problems. They'd just made it into the locker room when his friend collapsed again. He was going to try and pull him towards one of the benches but was met with a set of golden glowing eyes and wicked set of sharp teeth. "Get away from me!" Holy Mother of God, the spaz had never been so terrified in his life. He scrambled backwards, doing his best to hide behind the lockers only to see the werewolf jump on top of them and stare down at him with deadly intent. Things didn't get any better as the wolf used to ceiling columns to freely keep track of him. Just when Stiles thought he was a goner, he stumbled into the emergency fire extinguisher. Without a second thought, he ripped the piece of red metal from the wall and pulled the pin. And not a moment too soon as Scott dropped from the columns, ready to attack, only to get a face full of freezing cold carbon dioxide. He retreated to just outside the locker room entrance, fire extinguisher at the ready just in case.

"Stiles…"

The teen slowly peeked into the room to see his friend sitting on a bench, looking as if he didn't have a clue as to where he was.

"What happened?" Scott asked him, looking more confused than he'd ever seen him.

The fear of imminent danger gone, Stiles tossed the fire control device to the side before telling his favorite amigo that he'd just tried to kill him. The pained and fearful look in Scott's eyes dissipated whatever sort of anger he might have felt. Plopping down on the bench next to him, he started to remind Scott of why that special brand of 'attack' happened. His friend tried to argue with him but Stiles, being the smarter of the two, out logic-ed him at every turn.

"You can't play Saturday. You have to get out of the game…"

Even knowing that it would potentially save lives, the anguished look that covered Scott's face made it feel like a hollow victory.

0-0-0-0-0

Derek was not pleased with what he'd seen at Scott's lacrosse practice. Though he had been busy finishing up arrangements Laura's grave and looking for more clues to who the new Alpha was, the man had made sure to check up on his little brother a couple times a day. He hadn't had to worry much during the weekend as the first full moon a wolf experienced practically wipes the floor with them once it set but he made sure to be at the school after the day was over. The wolf-man had been right to do so as it hadn't been half an hour into the practice that Scott had shifted. They'd both lucked out when the fool decided to drag him to the near empty school and away from the other players. He wanted to be angry or down right furious with his little brother but really all he was worried about was people finding out about them, specifically his little brother. Humans rarely accepted what they couldn't understand and their fear would lead to finding Scott surrounded by a mob made up of people he knew and grown up with, all with the intent of killing him for merely existing.

The love he had for his brother and his inner wolf demanded Derek never let that happen.

The man kept a close eye on the cub as he headed off to work early due to the idiot he'd rammed through needing to go to the hospital to get his shoulder examined. He watched as Scott practically threw himself into his work, doing anything and everything he could find occupy himself with. All the animals seemed to pick up on his distress and made attempts to dissolve it. Dogs tried to stay a little bit more stable while he gave them a bath or making sure to show some extra appreciation for whatever it was he was doing for them. The shocker though came when the cats, not to promote stereotyping but anything of the feline variety abhorred being in a werewolf's vicinity, tried to bring him peace of mind as well. One went so far as to climb across his shoulders, wrap around the back of his neck and nuzzle his cheek in comfort. All in all, Scott left the Animal Clinic tired as hell but at much more ease than when he'd arrived.

Derek found himself perched easily on the roof of the McCall residence a couple minutes before Scott made it home on his bike. His feet were dragging as he just dropped his bicycle in the front yard without a care and headed inside. Despite his long drawn-out steps, innate werewolf stealth would have prevented anyone from hearing him had the stair case not had a couple squeaky steps. The older male had just heard his little brother plop down on his bed when a voice he hadn't heard in years appeared.

The wolf-man's respect for Melissa McCall was easily held at a level equal to that of his own mother. In the time he'd come to know her, the man had found her to be passionate, nurturing, and protective, all the things that embodied that of a she-wolf. It had been no surprise when it took less than a month to have his uncle wrapped around her little finger, though the woman would never know that. She'd gone through hell and still ended up on top with her son. That's why a low, furious grumble vibrated within him as she talked about her taking off to see her son play First Line, no small amount of pride filtering from her voice, and how it wouldn't completely stop them from paying bills. Yet another pang of regret hit him for them leaving and not helping the woman who had practically become Laura and his aunt. Maybe he could sneak in while the McCalls were gone and see if there was anything in need of repair or replacing.

All seriousness dropped from his system as he shoved his face into the crook of his elbow to muffle his laughter as Scott and his mom somehow got into a conversation about drugs that ended with the cub asking his own mother if she'd ever tried them and her slowly walking away.

Despite his mom telling him to get some sleep, Derek heard Scott slump into his desk chair and start up his laptop. Less than a minute later he heard the familiar jingle of a Skype call and the fool's voice and an odd, toyish gun sound effect come from the speakers.

"So what'd you find out?" Scott asked the worry evident in his little brother's speech.

"Well it's bad. Jackson's got a separated shoulder," Stiles replied, not sounding the least bit sympathetic.

Derek could practically hear the guilt playing at Scott's heartstrings when he pointed out that it was his fault. Stiles scored a couple points with him when he countered that it was, in fact, Jackson's fault for being a tool. Maybe there was hope for him yet but he probably shouldn't think too much on it. There was a fearful tremble in the new wolf's voice as he asked if the tool would still be able to play. Derek was thoroughly annoyed when his brother's friend said no one knew but that all the pressure was now on him to lead the team to victory. The pressures of high school, thank God he didn't have to deal with that anymore!

Figuring it was time to let his presence be known, the man silently slipped through the window making sure to stay in the shadows. He watched as his brother's body unconsciously reacted to his nearness, more than likely feeling the familiar buzz in his chest, like Derek was, at the close proximity of Pack. There was relief and joy that his brother's inner wolf recognized and accepted him so quickly.

"Hey, Stiles, I've got to go."

His brother's friend tried to argue but something seemed to pass between them and the twitchy boy quickly ended the call. Scott audibly gulped before slowly turning around in his chair and nearly fell out of his seat in shock at the sight of him. "Jesus Christ Derek! Do you have to keep doing that appear/disappear thing?" An amused smirk spread across the older werewolf's face making his brother sigh. "I thought as much…"

A sudden burst of shame filled the room like smoke.

"Derek…something happened at school… I-"

"I already know," was his calm reply.

"Y-You were…" he stuttered his shock showing through.

"Yes."

The shame increased as his brother gripped at his Hale pendant and stared at him while his eyes watered.

"I couldn't control it… Everything just sort of hit me all at once! Jackson singling me out, Coach was hounding me and I just found out that Allison comes from a family of werewolf hunters and that her dad was the one that shot me! The wolf came out before I even knew what was happening… If Stiles hadn't dragged me away… I might have… I might have…"

Derek watched as Scott's fear tried to consume him, his eyes glowing already as the beast pushed at the boy's control. A few quick strides and he was kneeling before the cub, letting his own wolf surface and eyes illuminate white blue to push back the younger male's anxiety. It took a moment but the other inner wolf finally submitted and settled down within its host. The cub's eyes lost their fear but were quickly filled with confusion.

"It's a Pack thing, really it's what the essence of Pack is supposed to be. And that incident at the school wasn't your fault especially for someone so new to being a werewolf. Control is a tedious thing, Scott, and even for the eldest of our kind it can slip in an instant. But that is what your packmates are for, to help you and keep you in check in those moments of weakness and save you from yourself. That being said there is something I need you to do for me."

Now came the hard part.

"I know… I need to get out of the game Saturday. I'm going to talk to Finnstock tomorrow. I can't take the chance of hurting anyone else or exposing us to the Hunters…"

Or maybe not.

"G-Good… Great… I guess I'll leave you to do whatever it is you had planned. And, Little Brother, try to get some sleep. You look like shit!"

"Shut up, Jerk Face!" Scott exclaimed throwing a discarded shirt at his big brother, a much needed smile cracking through.

Derek loud barking laugh echoed through the room as he tilted his head to the side, easily dodging the ball of cloth before disappearing out the window.

It was time to get back to his search for the Alpha.

0-0-0-0-0

Frustrated was the word of the day for Scott that Friday morning.

School, homework and a lack of practice had made confronting his coach about not playing in Saturday's game a next to impossible mission to accomplish. Or at least that's what the teen made himself believe. The truth of the matter was he had no clue what to say. How was he supposed to tell Bobby Finnstock, the man who showed a nine-year-old how to play his dream sport and gave him one of his first pieces of lacrosse gear, that the one he and everyone else were counting on couldn't play? Before he knew it, Friday was slapping him in the face and forcing him to wing it and hopefully go over as well as winging it with Allison had. There was no such luck. Not only did he have quite possibly the awkwardest conversation with an adult ever but had been told that if he didn't play, Coach was going to have to bench him.

Things got even worse when, not seconds after leaving the Coach's Office, his mom texted him saying that she had got tomorrow off and would be at the game.

Again, the word of the day was frustration.

And then he saw Allison and it dissolved into nothing like every other time he was around her. She just seemed to have this innate ability to push his worries back. Scott had wanted to be terrified of the girl after finding out that her dad was a Hunter. Once pleasant and slightly X-rated dreams of her turned into nightmares of being chase by her through the woods or walking around the hall and her suddenly appearing with an oversized crossbow aimed right at him. But the next morning, after much planning on how to avoid the Argent, she walked into their English class, looked him straight in the eyes and sent a blinding smile his way. And that when he knew there was no chance in hell his angel was a part of her hidden family business.

"Busy?" she asked him, looking more beautiful than the day before.

Of course, he turned into a bumbling mess.

"Nah, nah. It's just my mom. She's nothing. I mean it's nothing. Uh…I'm never too busy for you."

An odd feeling of giddiness came off her as she told him she liked the sound of that.

But because the powers that be couldn't give him any lasting happiness, Allison told him she was going to the game and would being cheering for him. He swore his stomach literally dropped out of his feet and into the ground as she walked away. The only upside he found as he watched her head to class was that she apparently liked Stiles, which scored his angel some mega points as most people found Stiles beyond irritating for some reason.

With a loud sigh, Scott headed off to his own class, unconsciously rubbing at a weird buzzing in his chest.

The day only got progressively worse as in his Math class, Lydia Martin of all people was hounding him to play. When he obstinately told her that that he wasn't playing, the red head, he didn't care what Stiles said about strawberry blonde it was red, resorted to blackmailing him. Telling him how Jackson would still win them the game and then they would all go out like Allison had told him and start introducing _his_ angel to other guys. Just the idea of another person of the male persuasion touching, kissing Allison nearly made him ground the chalk in his hand to dust. He'd never thought he would ask himself if it was really so bad to punch a girl but the idea did flit across his mind. The new wolf couldn't have agreed more when his teacher told him he wasn't even close to solving his problem.

The McCall had just finished tossing some books into his locker and closed it, resisting the urge to slam his head into the metal, when Stiles grabbed him and started dragging him across the hall.

"Tell me what they're saying," Stiles ordered while pointing down a side hall.

He followed the finger to where their principal, Stiles' dad, and one of his deputies were standing, a serious air wafting off the small gathering. Something grave seemed to be going on so Scott focus in on the adults and tried to filter out the usual noises of school. He was really grateful when Stiles decided earlier that week that he needed to learn how to control his new overpowering senses. Sight hadn't really been an issue but hearing and smell had more than made up for it. After a long day of practice, vuvuzelas and burnt hair were on his Shit List.

"Can you hear 'em?"

Scott shushed his friend and refocused.

"Curfew because of the body."

Stiles annoyance was all too apparent.

"Unbelievable! My dad's out looking for a rabid animal while the jerk off who actually killed the girl is just hanging out! Doing whatever he wants!"

The werewolf's brow hardened and his fingertips started to feel a familiar itch.

"We don't know that Derek had anything to do with that."

His best friend stared at him in utter disbelief.

"Are you… You can't seriously be defending the guy?! Come on, Man, think! Two joggers find a half a body, you get a bite from Kujo and Derek just happens to show up the next day?!"

For the first time consciously Scott McCall did the intelligent thing and started to walk away, curbing the urge to slam his friend into the cement brick wall, only to be jerk around by the spazzy teen.

"Alright, I'm sorry, okay? I shouldn't point the blame at him without proof but you know how my mind works and right now everything is marking him as guilty! But, and this is only for you, I will humor the idea that it isn't him. Plus, I'm going to need your help if I'm going to get rid of this curfew. Because Stiles Stilinski doesn't do curfews."

"What are we about to get in trouble for?" Scott asked feeling his face relax back to normal at his buddy's willingness to hold off on his brother's guilt or innocence.

"Finding the other half of the body," Stiles stated with complete seriousness

"Oh come on!" Scott exclaimed as he watched his partner-in-crime walk away.

A familiar heavenly laughter filled his ears, distracting him from the problem that had just been added to his list but leading straight into a much worse one. It seemed a certain red haired witch was keeping her word and was already putting her plan into motion. An irritated growl rumbled in his chest as he stalked towards where Lydia was introducing Allison to one of Jackson's lacrosse lackeys. The conniving girl openly smirked at him before pulling the lackey away, letting his angel bring her attention to him.

"So Lydia's introducing you to everyone," he stated quietly, forcing down his wolf and calm into his speech.

"She is being so unbelievably nice to me! I think maybe she gets how much it sucks being the new girl…"

The wolf-boy internally whined at how sweet and innocent Allison was not to see what Lydia was trying to do. His anguish was short lived when his eyes landed on the jacket folded over her arms. Instantly, he was back in the wood tracking down Derek, desperately look for the girl in front of him. When he asked where she got it, she told him how it was probably the 'strawberry blond' that'd just walked away but a fear forced him to interrupt before the girl finished.

"Did she say she brought it back or did someone give it to her?"

"Like who?" Allison asked, sounding confused and worried.

"Like Derek."

Scott really didn't want to think his big brother was up to no good but Stiles words from earlier were still banging around in his head and messing with his resolve.

"Oh you mean your 'brother'?"

Allison watched as her boyfriend, or at least that's what she hoped Scott was, slowly tilted his head and blinked in confusion, once again reminding her of a puppy. Holding back the urge to giggle was quite difficult.

"He told you about that?"

"A little bit," the Argent answered easily thinking back on her meeting with the imposing man.

_Allison Argent wasn't stupid by any stretch of the word and had been hesitant to climb into his rather sleek looking midnight black Camaro, a high-end machine her aunt would have killed to get behind the wheel of. Derek seemed to notice her reluctance to get into the vehicle and began fishing in his back pocket. It had turned out to be his wallet and the man began flipping through it as he walked back over from the driver's side. Once he was in front of her, he held up the leather money holder to show her a slightly crinkled picture of a large figure holding a smaller one upside down. Derek was easy to pinpoint, with a much easier smile than seemed possible now, but it was the small boy dangling helplessly by his ankles that drew her in. The teenager recognized the wide goofy grin and crooked jawline she'd come to adore in an instant as Scott McCall. She easily agreed to the ride after that. Besides, if she was in any real danger she was secure in the fact that she could hold him off with a well-placed groin shot and get away._

_Derek's face had become rather stoic when they started towards her house, making it even harder for her to place the smile from the picture to the man next to her. That didn't last long as she started asking about what Scott was like when he was littler, interested in anything she could learn about the one that had captivated her from their first meeting. It was almost like a flip was switched on inside him as the smile from the photograph effortlessly broke out across his face while he talked about Scott. The man didn't go into great detail as to why Scott was in the Big Brothers, Big Sisters program but he did tell her about some of the things he used to do the younger boy. The way he spoke about the little boy he was mentoring, if someone didn't already know better, they would think he was talking about his honest-to-God blood related little brother._

A groan from the boy before her pulled her from her revere.

"Oh God, please tell me he didn't tell you any embarrassing stories?"

Muffling her laughter with her hand, Allison decided to have a little fun and started walking away while making him promise to be at the game, her giggles finally bursting out as he groaned again and promised to do unspeakable things to his 'older brother'.

0-0-0-0-0

"I hate you so much right now, Stiles," Scott grounded out, as he and his friend loitered around a hall in his mom's hospital.

"Yes, yes. We've established that. Now go!" Stiles exclaimed while pushing him towards a door labeled 'MORGUE'.

The shaggy haired boy waited until a passing nurse rounded the corner before sneaking through the door.

Earlier right after school let out, he had high-tailed it out to the remains of place that had once been his second home. When he arrived, he'd thrown down his bike and began screaming for Derek, knowing if he was anywhere it would have to be where people would least expected him to be. Scott waited for a minute for an answer before jerking his head every which direction, searching for any sign of the man. Still unable to find a visible clue as to where the older male was, the newbie wolf closed his eyes and took a whiff of the air, hoping for a trail that he could follow. He managed to catch a scent but it was not the one he searching for. A stale, don't ask him how he knew that, metallic tang filled in the air and was sourced at a pile of freshly turned dirt. He was just about to go check it out when Derek finally decided to appear. The smell of blood, something he was intimate with thanks to lacrosse, was forgotten quickly as he begged his big brother to leave Allison alone and tried to convince him that there was no way she was a hunter. Derek was not pleased that he was defending her with no proof she wasn't in fact a Hunter and even less when he found out that Scott had yet to find a way out of the game. In a harsh tone he would later apologize for, Derek laid out the worst case scenario in front of him without remorse. He was so stuck in his fear of everyone turning against him that he barely registered his brother's order to find some way to get out of the game and subsequent disappearance.

Now here he was about to sniff a dead body because he _had_ to call Stiles to brainstorm ways to get out of the game and had somehow off-handedly mentioned the smell of blood. His spaz of a friend had rushed over, dragged him out of the house, basically threw him into the passenger side of his Jeep, and floored into the hospital. The entire ride consisted of him trying to prove that it might be the other half of the body. Scott had been adamant in his brother's defense but Stiles being the way to persuasive oddball he was, convinced him to at least check.

His throat went dry and his palms began to sweat when he found the door marked 'JANE DOE – PARTIAL'. Every fiber of his being wanted to run from the room and just pretend he'd never been there but he swallowed it down, opened the latch and slowly pulled out the tray. His anxiety only got worse as he realized he needed to lift the sterile white sheet to get a good sniff. His heart racing, the wolf-boy picked up the sheet and took a deep inhale. Not a second later, he was dropping the cloth and shoving the tray back in before sinking slowly to his knees.

The smell matched the one at the Hale's exactly.

His brother was a murderer.

Scott was so messed up at that moment that he didn't know what he was supposed to feel but the wolf inside him was raging, not at Derek's act but at him for believing his brother was capable of murder. It howled in anger that he would lose all faith in his packmate, in his family. The boy had never fully understood the beast that dwelled within him but at that moment it felt as if his inner wolf knew something he didn't and Scott latched onto that. With a sense of renewed determination, the werewolf walked out of the room, grabbed his friend who was reading a pamphlet on the Menstrual Cycle for some reason and began dragging him out towards his vehicle.

"Judging by the look on your face, it was a match. I told you, Dude."

An annoyed growl reverberated in his chest as they reached the blue four-by-four.

"Uh…so what are we doing?" Stiles asked as they climbed into the car.

"We're double checking," Scott said with finality.

His best friend just kind of stared at him for a minute before starting the Jeep and telling him they would need shovels.

For the first time ever, Scott was thankful for his friend had stakeout in his repertory of useful skills. After picking up some tools and Stiles using him to factor in wolf senses so they couldn't get caught, they had set out for his brother's family property. Hours passed before Derek dropped into his car and drove off, allowing them to finally move in. The pair quickly jumped out of the Jeep, tools in hand, and made their way to the newly formed pile of earth. While they walked, Scott took another whiff of the air and stretched out his arm to stop his friend.

"Wait! Something's different."

"Different how?"

"I don't know…"

A sudden swelling of hope filled the werewolf. Maybe he had been wrong. Maybe the body wasn't there at all.

The duo hastily set to work, fear of his brother's unforeseen return weighing on both of them.

The newly moved dirt turned out to be a blessing as it made digging ten times easier but it still made Scott nervous with how long it was taking. When he voiced his worries, Stiles told him to keep going and that he had a plan incase Derek showed up.

"You run one way, I run the other, whoever he catches first…too bad."

"I hate that plan!"

Why the hell did Scott always leave the planning to Stiles?

Less than a minute later, they finally struck something. They tossed their shovels out of the hole, dropped to their knees and together began pushing dirt away from whatever they'd found. Multiple lengths of rope began to appear, knotted around what looked to be something in a burlap sack. After a bit of untying and some arguing, the object was free from its bindings and was uncovered. Simultaneously, the pair screamed loudly and leaped from the hole, all the while staring into the white clouded eyes of a rather large wolf.

"What the hell is that?!" Stiles exclaimed while slowly moving further from the grave.

"It's a wolf!" Scot replied, just as confused at his friend.

"I can see that! I thought you said you smelled blood? As in human blood!"

"I told you something was different…"

They had just agreed to put everything back the way it was when a sort of shocked and awed look crossed his friend's face. Looking to where the other boy was, Scott noticed a fresh light purple colored flower standing alone amongst a sea of dead plant life. When he asked what it was, his walking Wikipedia of a best friend said the oddly familiar word wolfsbane. Something was definitely off about it because his wolf half was beyond wary of it. Then he did the apparently stupid thing of asking why it was important.

"Haven't you ever seen The Wolfman? Lon Chaney Jr.? Claude Rains? The original classic werewolf movie?!"

When he answered negative to all of the above his friend just shook his head in disappointment.

"You are so unprepared for this…"

Before the werewolf even knew what was happening, Stiles was on top of the flower and plucking it out of the ground. Or at least he would have had it not been attached to more rope. His friend began pulling up more and more of the thread, slowly spiraling around the hole and never seeming to end. All of that meant nothing as his eyes wandered to the hole and he jumped back screaming. To the duo's astonishment, where once a dead wolf had been, the upper torso of a young woman had replaced it.

"Holy Shit!" Stiles shouted, his thoughts mirroring his own.

Pooling the little bit of courage he had at the moment, Scott gulped in a deep breath before crawling to the edge of the now obvious makeshift grave to make absolutely sure that it was the girl from the woods. His resolve at Derek's innocence was dwindling away into nothing. He forced himself to take a good look at the body this time, absorbing as much detail as possible. With a surprise realization, all the breath in his lungs shot out in an instant.

"No…" Scott choked out miserably as he stared at the upper half of Laura Hale.

The teen started gasping loudly for his lost breath reminiscent of one of his asthma attacks only a hundred times worse. This just wasn't possible. Derek, his brother who he looked up to above all others, would never do something as terrible as this, especially to Laura of all people. The very thought of his big brother harming a hair on his sister's head seemed to finally give his grief free rein to take hold of his heart. With tears welling in his eyes, his inner beast surfaced with no great difficulty or resistance. His wolf was filled with just as much sadness at the loss of his sister as him and then the red haze of anger flooded his vision. His claws turned his normally blunt nails into razor blades and easily sank into the ground while his ears became pointed and his canines elongated in his mouth.

"Sc-Scott?"

The McCall's head snapped to the shaking voice of his friend, his golden glowing eyes completely focused on him.

"You in there buddy?"

Apprehension rolled off his friend in waves and he seemed to be ready to bolt at any moment, even if Stiles knew he could never outrun him.

And just for a single solitary moment, a mere nanosecond, Scott wanted him to run like a frightened animal, for his best friend to become a moving target and finally have some kind of outlet for the oppressing all-consuming despair gripping his sanity.

That was the moment Scott McCall started to take back control or at least attempted to. Hurting anyone was the last thing he wanted to happen but the haze and bloodlust were too much and still bared down against his will. He could feel it wouldn't dissipate until something felt the wrong end of the machetes sticking out of the tips of his fingers. Looking at anything but Stiles and Laura, his eyes quickly zeroed in on a thick, half burned tree and he was slicing into the blackened husk of it within seconds. Deep gouges appeared in the bark as he continuously raked his claws in every direction, all the while his mind forcing memories of Laura Hale to the forefront of his mind.

The sound of her laughing as they goofy danced to a song.

The smell of her backing her famous Hale cookies and other goodies for when he spent the day with Derek.

Every wonderful recollection he had of fun loving girl came and passed, forcing his grief over the edge and his wolf finally helped him express how he felt.

An agonizing and mournful howl ripped from the teen wolf's throat and echoed brazenly through all of Beacon Hills.

Stiles was frozen in overwhelming awe and utter terror at the sound coming from his best friend. He had been scared as hell when Scott shifted in front of him and was pretty sure the unstable supernatural was going to lunge for his neck. Then came the debarking of a tree and the howl that could probably be heard in every corner of the state. Stiles' eyes widened when he went back over that last thought.

"Fuck!"

Without a second thought for his safety, the spaz ran up behind his still wolfed out friend, looped his arms under his shoulders, and started dragging the unresisting werewolf towards the Jeep. They needed to get out of there before the Hunters made an appearance or worse, Derek showed up.

**ASDFASDFASDF**

**So I've got a question for everybody. Did you guys like my portrayal of Laura when I used her in earlier chapters? I don't know why I am suddenly worrying about it but I'd kind of like to know what your opinions are.**

**Reviews please.**


	9. Second Chance at Second Line Part 2

**So here's the next chapter. I actually finished on Saturday but I kept getting side tracked from doing the final edit. XP**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Teen Wolf.**

**ASDFASDFASDF**

There is not a single person on planet Earth, Derek could guarantee it, that wants to come home to find cops, or whatever the term for the place was, all over the place.

The police were worse when the house belongs to a werewolf, who have a natural aversion to them for obvious reasons, especially for one that is hiding a dead body on the premises.

But of course the universe hadn't kicked him in the balls enough so when he got home from another long night of looking for the Alpha, low and behold, the entirety of the Beacon Hills Police Department was just sitting there waiting for him to pull up. There were two foreseeable things the werewolf could do. Option one was spit up dirt as he jerked his car around and taken off like a bat out of Hell. Option two was simply to surrender. Both had plenty of merit to them respectively but the first would put him at the top of the country's Most Wanted list while the second would put him in jail for at most a day before getting out on a technicality. A little known fact about his kind was that a shifted werewolf's DNA came up animal rather than their base human genetic code. So while a Beta or even an Omega may have killed his sister, all the forensic stuff would come back wolf and he would be free. Simply put, Derek went with option two. He got out of his car slowly, put himself on the ground facedown and folded both of his hands behind his head. One of the deputies was swift in jumping on top of him and cuffing him, all the while reading the wolf-man his rights.

It was actually quite funny watching the deputy, a man probably not much older than himself, try and manhandle him towards the backseat of a cop car. Derek just walked like he would normally, not budging an inch under the assault but not really resisting either. It wasn't long before an older gentleman came to take the exhausted man's place and the wolf-man allowed the old cop to push him along more quickly. His mother would come back from the grave and slap the holy hell out of him for disrespecting the elderly by pulling the same stunt he had with the first. The older male had just opened the car door when he heard the now familiar rumbling of a sky blue four-by-four.

Now sitting comfortably in the back seat of a cruiser, Derek watched patiently for the old vehicle to appear. His senses proving right like always, the clunker pulled to a stop just out of the field of vision for the surrounding cops. He watched as Stiles hoped out of his Jeep and casually started to make his way towards his old home. The werewolf would have to give the oddball a few points as he easily made it to the front door of his 'prison' completely undetected by those around him. One last quick look around to make sure the coast was clear and the kid was sliding into the passenger seat in front of him.

"Okay, just so you know, I'm not afraid of you."

That was actually quite true; at least until the wolf-man looked him dead in the eye and the stench of fear took place of the courage.

"Okay…maybe I am. That doesn't matter. I just wanna know something. That girl you killed, your sister, she was a werewolf. She was different wasn't she? I mean she could turn into an actual wolf and I know Scott can't do that. Is that why you killed her?"

Derek's inner wolf wanted to beat the child in front of him within an inch of his life for saying he would do anything to hurt his Alpha. That he should snap the flimsy metal holding his wrists together and rip through the grate separating him from the boy. But the wolf-man knew how it looked. That everything the police had found to his unannounced return was working against him and left few doubting his guilt. That was the only thing saving the fool before him from the beating of his life. Besides, there were more important things to be worrying about. Since he found himself more than likely about to spend the night in jail there was no one to make sure his little brother didn't play in the game that night.

"Why are you so worried about me when Scott's the one who's going to be in trouble? If he shifts on the field at the game tonight there won't be a safe place in Beacon Hills that can hide him. Everyone will hunt him down and-"

"SHUT UP! JUST SHUT UP!"

The bitter smell of terror coming from Stiles was quickly replaced with the biting tint of anger.

"You don't get the right to worry about him, okay?! Scott's been almost completely catatonic since we found your sister in that hole this morning and I've barely been able to get anything out of him! He's been sitting in my car for hours with just this blank look and that is all on you! Do you understand any of that?! You've fucked him up more than his dad leaving ever could!"

Derek swore his heart stopped beating entirely at hearing Scott had been the one to find Laura. He had hoped the howl from last night had come from Scott's unhappiness at not getting to play lacrosse, the kid was obsessed with playing the sport so it only seemed logical. It had never occurred to him that it was for the one thing he hadn't figured out quite how to tell his little brother. His eyes started scanning out the window for Stiles Jeep again and the sight he found was nearly soul-crushing. Gone were the expressive eyes that Laura and Kate had loved so much and the lopsided grin that the boy had made famous was nowhere to be found. A new mask was in place and it made the one he'd had when they first met look like a giant yellow smiley face. The wolf inside him whimpered at the sight of their pained brother and demanded he do something to save the last of their family.

"Has he learned to focus his senses?"

"Um uh…wha-what?" stuttered out the human.

"Has he. Learned to. Focus. His senses?" the older male gritted out through his teeth.

All he got was a simple nod but that was enough. Turning his focal point back to his baby brother, he began calling out to him, loud enough for the boy to hear but normal enough by human standards to think he was talking to himself. Though he wanted Scott's attention, there was no preparing him for the utterly blank set of eyes that met his own. The words were jumbled in his throat as he tried to explain that he hadn't killed their sister without giving too much away. Scott still wasn't ready to know the whole of everything going on.

"Yeah, like we can't totally tell you're lying right now."

Derek cracked a smirk at the boy's words. Another point for the spaz.

"Scott, Werewolf 101, we can listen to the heartbeat of others and tell whether or not they are lying to us. When a person lies there is a slight uptick in the beat minus the oddball you call a best friend. Focus in on my heart and you will know the truth."

"Wait, you can actually do tha- and shutting up now!" Stiles started before quickly shutting his mouth at the look Derek gave him.

"I would never hurt Laura."

His brother's silence was deafening even with all the sounds of people and animals alike pounding at his senses. He was just about to give up and come to the realization that he'd just lost one of the most important people in the world to him when the whisper hit his sensitive ears.

"Promise?"

Scott's voice was quiet, pained and pleading to him, begging for his words to be true and Derek knew of only one way to fully prove to his little brother he wasn't lying.

"Gealltanas."

Life flooded the cub's once empty eyes and the visible tension in his body slowly unwound itself. Derek felt his own surge of relief envelop him and calm his inner beast. If he was the sort of man to do it, there would no doubt be relieved tears in his eyes that Scott believed him. There was honestly no telling what would have happened if the werewolf's sanity took another hit from loss.

Things passed with ease after their little emotional rollercoaster ride. Stiles got yanked from the cruiser by his old man and got thoroughly chewed out when he gave out too much information he'd lied about, all of which Derek had enjoyed watching probably a bit more than he should have. The older cop from earlier took him to the police station to be processed for the first time and not long after he was sitting easy in his cell, safe in the knowledge that Scott wouldn't be turning against him.

0-0-0-0-0

Scott had been on the move for hours, no real destination in mind for the wolf that had taken over a large portion of his motor functions.

After the whole ordeal with Stiles and the wolfsbane laced rope, his inner wolf had forced his body to put as much distance between himself and the flower. Inhaling the pollen from the plant seemed to make his consciousness take backseat to his other side with him only slightly aware of what was happening around him. He couldn't really complain though as it had felt as if someone had their hands around his throat and the longer he was in Stiles' car the tighter the hand's grip got. Once the wolf's sense of self-preservation was satisfied Scott was allowed back at some of the controls but with no real clue as to how to turn back to his normal self.

So he ran some more and tried to focus on the only thing that seemed to ground him now that he'd become a monster.

There was really no telling how overwhelmed the inexperienced moon child would be had the Angel of Mercy known as Allison Argent hadn't moved to Beacon Hills. She had only been present in his life for less than two weeks and Scott already knew the angel held a place in his heart the boy hadn't even known existed. Suddenly the uncontrollable urge to see the beautiful girl filled him and his directionless running finally had a goal. Though it hadn't occurred to him that he was still wolfed out, luck was unexpectedly on his side at that time as it had become nightfall without him realizing. With an ease the teen hadn't known werewolfism could give, he scaled the side of the Argent residences and began making his way across Allison's slanting roof.

Music played lightly through her open window, announcing to anyone who could hear that she was in the room. His tension slowly ebbed away as he saw the girl sitting at her desk, smiling and lightly laughing as she flipped through the pictures in her hands. The wolf-boy never stopped getting closer and closer to the thin glass separating him from the angel. Everything about her was drawing him in on a base level he couldn't comprehend and when she moved towards the window, the teen had wanted nothing more than to touch her. To take Allison away from the people who would keep _his _angel from him and never let anyone else have her. He was mere seconds from grabbing her when Allison closed the curtains.

Scott forced down the wolf immediately and took back control at what he saw. Reflecting back at him thanks to the now dark background of the window was the face of a monster. A monster willing to take an innocent girl away from everything she loved to fulfill a selfish desire. Without a second thought, Scott dropped down from the roof into a patch of garden brushes and began running for the farthest place possible to keep Allison safe. So caught up in scolding himself for allowing the wolf to get that close to her, Scott never saw the black SUV coming until he was rolling across the hood. The werewolf slammed into the dirt wincing loudly as it felt like he'd cracked at least a few ribs but the pain was slowly fading as his body healed itself. A new sense of terror filled him as he heard the familiar click of a door handle and the scent of the only Hunter he knew hit him. The one person who really, really didn't need to know he was a werewolf was closing in on him while he had no way or knowledge of how to shift back.

"Dad? Dad! What the hell are you doing?!"

"He-He came out of nowhere, Allison!"

"Are you trying to kill him?!"

"No, no! Of course not! He just- He just ran out in the middle of the driveway…"

Scott was very aware something was different as there was no screaming or crossbows being pointed at his head. A quick rub of his tongue over his teeth told him that he somehow looked human again. Sometime between getting hit by the car and slamming into the ground he must have shifted back for some reason. He would talk to Stiles about that later after the game tonight but there were more important things to worry about. Like the fact that he was on the ground next to a man that had he been in the know would probably be killing him at the moment.

Chris Argent had been a very distracted man for the past week or so. After handling the 'ferals', Chris used the term to distinguish wolves who had human blood on their hands from those who simply wanted to live life, where his family had lived last, he'd chosen Beacon Hills for their next 'home' mainly for Allison's sake. Despite the constant goading from his father and Kate and Allison's natural skills, the man had yet to decide whether or not he wanted his daughter exposed to the life of a Hunter. That was why he'd picked the small town; its werewolf population was already at zero so there was no chance of his little girl finding out about the family business before he came to a decision.

Then he'd come across Laura Hale's body while doing a routine sweep of the area before Victoria and Allison arrived. Chris immediately called his men from their homes and checking for more victims while he called Gerard and his sister to inform them of what had happened. Kate had become uncharacteristically quiet when he told them who the victim was while his father began talking about ways to use it to their advantage. Rage had filled him when the final decision was made but he'd said nothing. He was a soldier and orders were not his to question.

Of course his father's plan had worked and Derek came running, however the other Beta with him had been shocking. The kid couldn't have been older than Allison and from the confusion with which the child had looked at them, he had no clue as to who they were. That could only mean one of two things. The Hale's sister had recently turned some teenager during her tenure as Alpha or a new Alpha was running around turning whoever it pleased. Neither of those options sat well with him.

All of that had been taken up so much of his attention, Chris nearly had a heart attack when his SUV hit some kid in his driveway.

"No, no! I'm sorry. It's my fault. I'm sorry…" the boy had ramble, all the while wincing from being rammed by the vehicle.

"Are you okay?" his daughter had asked gently.

"Yeah. Yeah, yeah, I'm fine," the boy answered before looking at him and ridiculously apologizing for hitting his car and turning back to Allison. "I was just coming to say hi…"

The male Argent watched closely as his daughter laughed at the boy as the two became lost in each other's eyes. This was a giant red flag for Chris. Due to the continual moving his 'work' had his family doing, the older man was always worrying about Allison. How was she adjusting to her new environment? Was she making friends? Were her grades suffering? Things that pushed him more and more towards keeping their family secret under wraps just so his daughter could eventually move on and have some sense of stability that she was denied from birth. But the way his daughter was looking at the young man before him was like nothing he'd ever seen from her. Chris wasn't that dad who threatened every hormonal teenage guy that got near his little girl. The man didn't really have to as Allison was more than enough for any average punk kid and they are normally close to pissing themselves when they found out what his day job was. But again, this was different and he would be sure to keep a close eye on the boy.

"You're sure you're okay?" Chris asked as he helped the kid to his feet.

The boy tried to play it off even as he winced every time he moved, though he figured it was more for Allison's benefit than his own. The boy began talking to his daughter again about having to go but he seemed more than reluctant to do so. Apparently the boy was a jock, which had never really been his daughter's type, but the angelic smile that spread across her face as she told him she was coming to watch him play told Chris she had fallen hard for this one. He was definitely keeping an eye on this young man. It just so happened to be convenient that he could already start that night at the game. The boy seemed shocked by his announcement that he was coming also but that was to be expected. Just because he didn't knowingly act like that dad didn't mean he didn't come off as that dad.

0-0-0-0-0

Scott was a bundle of nerves and paranoia as he walked to the field with Stiles.

After quite possibly the worst pep talk in Stilinski history, Stiles track record with those blew hard at the best of times, and his best friend once again making sure Scott really believed that Derek was innocent, he'd finally made it out of the locker room as the last of the team dwindled. The werewolf was more nervous than he'd ever been in his life but he was at least determined to play the sport he loved and not lose Allison. Even, if it would end with a massive ass kicking and scolding from his big brother when he got out of jail.

Like usual, basically the whole town had shown up for the game. Scott saw his mom giving him a quick wave telling him she was here and he saw the Sheriff, Allison and Mr. Argent climbing up the bleachers to find a good spot before it was taken. All very normal but life wanted another curve ball thrown his ways so to the shock of Stiles and himself, Lydia marched right up to him and grabbed ahold of his jersey to keep him in place. Stiles looked like he was trying to have a mental breakdown or give him the stink-eye, it was kind of hard to tell.

"Scott! I just want you to remember one thing for tonight."

"Uh… That winning isn't everything?" he asked, hoping for some unrealistic reason the red head had become less high-strung in the last twenty-four hours.

That was of course shattered by her laughing in his face.

"Nobody likes a loser," she answered sweet but threateningly before walking away to sit with Allison and Mr. Argent.

Dear God, why did he have to have so much respect for women? Did Lydia even count as a girl or was she the freaking Anti-Christ in designer cloths and two hundred dollar high heels? He would never understand how Stiles thought he was insane for wanting to date a Hunter's daughter when he wanted to date _that_.

The crowd roared to life when the whistle blew to start the game and all the players ran onto the field.

The werewolf pleaded with the Powers That Be, begged them that everything would be okay. That his playing one of the most violent sports in the world wouldn't end with him picking out things he shouldn't from his teeth and covered in blood.

Scott had just gotten into position when the referee blew his whistle and dropped the ball. Jackson and the other team's center hammered into each other viciously and struggled for the ball before Jackson managed to shoot the ball behind him. The visiting team immediately backed off as the captain circled back for the ball. The teen wolf raced along the sideline with his net held high, clearly open as the other team ignored him completely. Only problem was so was his own team who kept passing the ball back and forth between everyone but him. The McCall thought he finally had a chance when a particularly hard hit from the opposing team knocked the ball from his teammate's crosse. Scott swiftly took off for it and was only a couple feet from the ball when he was sideswiped by his team captain. Jackson easily made it through the other team's defenses and scored to the approval of their teammates, the crowd and their coach. Sighing in exasperation, he figured things couldn't get much worse until he took a quick glance at the stands.

Lydia and Allison held a sign that had 'WE LUV U JACKSON!' written in big bold letters while they cheered for him.

Stiles must have looked to as he quietly said, "Brutal…"

Scott just barely felt annoyance beginning to rise within him as the game continued on with the team avoiding him like a plague. Why was everyone cheering for Jackson Whittemore? Did no one see the guy foul his own team? And why did Allison have to look so excited for him scoring? A not so subtle growl rumbled in his chest as he moved towards his spot again. He was just about there when he noticed a bunch of his teammates grouped up and focused in on what they were saying.

"Only to me!" a forceful voice spat that could only be Jackson.

"But what if he's open?" a voice of reason asked that had to be Danny, Jackson's best friend and the only one that ever seemed to be able to calm the boy down.

"Who's the captain?" Jackson said aggressively.

"Jackson, I don't want to-"

"What did I say?!"

"Don't pass to McCall…" Danny sighed out in defeat.

Annoyance swiftly became rage. Jackson was on a power trip and was making sure Scott didn't have a chance to show him up. The wolf-boy's gaze followed the jerk as they finished getting back into position, very aware that his eyes were showing his wolf breaching the surface. His inner beast shouted loudly to him and for the first time ever, he listened. If his team was going to play against him then he would just have to make sure they didn't have a vote on whether or not he got the little rubber sphere. Scott crouched low on his Middle Right Wing spot breathing deep and loudly, the cold of the night air making it look like he was blowing out steam. The ref passed him on the way to the center and slowed to ask if he was okay. He merely nodded, not quite up to speaking, and the man moved along but not before stopping to look back at him with a weary glance. Again, the teen took a quick peek at the stands to see Allison helping Lydia hold up a sign. At that moment, his wolf decided it was time to wreak some havoc only to be stopped short.

Time seemed to come to a standstill as a voice he'd just found out he would never hear again sounded in his ears and a seventeen year old Laura Hale appeared crouched in front of him.

"Hiya, Minion! You miss me?" she asked, her voice vibrant with her trademark impish grin in place.

The teen didn't know how to respond to Laura's abrupt appearance but didn't have time as her light features turned serious.

"Scott, I know you're angry at that Jackson boy and completely pulling back the wolf is out of the question right now but you need to focus or you are going to hurt someone. I know you don't want that so you need to focus. Aim the wolf, don't try and restrain the beast but don't let it do as it pleases either. Can you do that? For me?"

The boy closed his now watery eyes as the girl's hand ghosted through his mask and he swore he could actually feel her touching his cheek. It was warm and soft just the way he remembered it. He and his wolf calmed a bit at her presence and the werewolf gave a simple nod and opened his eyes to apologize for her dying but she was already gone.

When the whistle blew and the other team launched the ball back too high, instead of plowing through the player across from him and likely causing some serious damage, Scott used the guy as a springboard and leapt for the ball. The tiny orb was caught with minimal difficulty and Scott began weaving in and out of the opposing team before scoring with little effort. Suddenly, he was the one everyone was cheering for, the one his teammates were congratulating. He'd wanted this ever since he had learned about lacrosse and now it was happening. His wolf howled at their triumph and was eager to make it happen again. They reset for the Face-Off and once again Jackson lost to the other center who quickly tossed it to his closest teammate. Too bad for them it was the player opposite him and as the guy started to make a run for it, he was promptly stopped in his tracks. One simple glare down and the ball was passed to him while the other player backed away in terror. When Scott made it to the net, the wolf decided they need to add a little pepper to the shot and while the goalie may have caught his shot, the ball simply blasted through the goalie's crosse netting and into the goal.

More cheers were roared for him as the visiting team's coach tried to argue that the shot didn't count but was eventually overturned. But none of that mattered as his vision started to fill with the horrible red haze he'd come to fear. He tried everything to calm himself down but nothing was working. The whistle blew again and moved slowly up the field to avoid getting passed the ball. Of course, the one time he didn't want to be a scorer, Jackson chose to be a team player and tossed him the ball. Scott didn't want to let his team down so the moment the ball hit his net, he started moving down the field. The opposing team had apparently come to fear him and gave him a wide birth until he was basically in the goalie's zone and then he was surrounded. His wolf didn't like this one bit and set him to defensive mode in case the other players decided to attack. Seconds ticked by until they finally did and the only thing that stopped him from dropping his stick and ripping them to pieces was a soothing voice the supernatural would know anywhere.

"You can do it, Scott. You can do it."

The haze slipped away as he wound up his shot and scored just as the buzzer went off.

He had won them the game and he couldn't even enjoy it. All the screams pounded away at his ears and as he removed his glove, claws were visibly extended from his fingertips. Not knowing what else to do, Scott took off for the school and stumbled into the locker room after ditching his helmet and clutching his head in pain. He used a sink to support himself and tried to calm his racing heart before looking at his monstrous face in the mirror. A second later, it was shattering under a blow from his fist, the pain he should be feeling not even registering.

Without warning, he heard footsteps steadily getting closer and Allison calling out his name. As she walked in, the wolf-boy leapt into the raptures above and slowly followed her movements as she crept through black room, only stopping when she came across the broken glass. She was worried about him and it forced the feeling from earlier that night to come back. The compulsion to take her away and keep her all to himself, somewhere no one would disturb them and he could make her happy. Finally, the stinging in his knuckles started to manifest itself and brought him back to reality. He swiftly crawled over to where the showers were, dropped down and hid his face in his arms against the wall. The werewolf couldn't let her see him like this. It would make him lose her forever and Scott knew that was something he could never handle. So distracted by his own distressful thoughts, that when her hand touched his shoulder he about jumped out of his skin. Gulping loudly, he slowly turned and waited for her to back away and scream in horror but the boy was wrong again. Allison just looked at him with a relieved smile and asked if he was okay. It seemed once again that he'd somehow pulled the wolf back enough to become human again. Now he just had to convince her that it was because of something other than lycanthropy.

"Yeah…I uh… Sorry, I just got a little light headed there for a second."

"Maybe it was the adrenaline? You were pretty amazing out there."

Apparently, he was getting better at covering his ass and all that needed to be done was apologize for acting insane all week and hope she was still willing to give him a second chance.

"Sorry for acting so weird this week. Things have been a bit crazier around here lately."

"It's okay. I can handle weird and crazy."

The universe had to be setting him up. There was no way a girl as amazing as Allison, who could have anyone of her choosing, was willing to stick it out with him. But until he found out what was going to happen, he was going to take any handouts he could get.

Suddenly, Scott realized just how close they were and just how very alone they were. It was time to possibly make a fool of himself.

"To be totally honest, you uh…you make me kind of nervous."

"I do?" she asked sounding thoroughly confused.

"Yeah, kind of like really nervous," he continued, laughing quiet to himself as she began to giggle. "I just want to make sure I get my second chance."

"You already have it. I'm just waiting for you to take it," she answered with a smile as she slowly back away from him.

The werewolf quickly followed and before he knew it, their lips were connected. Contrary to what Stiles believed, Scott had actually kissed a girl before. A girl he played every time he visited his grandparents that went by the name Cora Bluey, who always seemed really interested in his stories of the Hales, took that first when she had been curious what all the hype was about. While that had been awkward at best, what he was feeling right now was, as Stiles would put it, epic. Allison's lips seemed to fit beyond naturally against his own and the McCall was pretty sure he could stand kissing his angel all day long and never get tired of it. The 'Cloud 9' and euphoric feeling everyone always talked about finally made sense to him. But like all good things, it eventually ended and they just kind of stood there in the afterglow, smiling widely at each other. One last kiss goodbye and then Allison slowly left the locker room to go find her dad.

The smile plastered on his face never faded as he walked over to his best friend who had appeared at some point.

"I kissed her," he said with barely contained joy.

"Saw that."

"She kissed me."

Was it possible to spontaneously combust from pure happiness?

"Saw that too. It's pretty good, huh?"

That was the understatement of Scott's lifetime. The wolf-boy tried to describe how he was able to pull the wolf back but he might have been too giddy to talk properly. Stiles seemed to get the gist of it though so it worked out. He also attempted to explain how maybe the world wasn't completely over just because there was a beast lurking inside him now. Stiles looked ready to tell him something before quickly changing his mind and telling him they would talk the next day. Scott could immediately tell something was off, not only from the way his friend was acting but an odd feeling that something was wrong that seemed to radiate from him. Very little prodding later and the spaz was spilling his guts.

"The medical examiner looked at the other half of the body we found. And to keep it simple, medical examiner determined the killer of Laura Hale to be animal, not human. Derek's human, not animal. Derek not killer, Derek let out of jail."

"Well that's a good thing, right?" Scott breathed out in relief. "Derek didn't do it so he shouldn't be stuck in jail."

"I still can't believe I'm letting you make me believe Derek Hale is innocent but that still leaves one problem. If he didn't kill his sister, who or what did?"

And there was what the universe was waiting for.

**ASDFASDFASDF**

**And there's the finish. Hope you enjoyed and look forward to seeing more Peter in the next few chapters.**


	10. Pack Mentality Part 1

**Time for some Peter action(which you will hopefully enjoy) and Scott having a random moment of genius. Sorry this took so long. Got stuck amusing the energizer bunny(my nephew) and his little sister for a weekend. Then spent hours catching up on Walking Dead so I could see the finale, which was totally INSANE!**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing but the plot idea.**

**ASDFASDFASDF**

Peter Hale loped through his family's property with elation he hadn't felt in years. Nearly six years' worth of being trapped within his own mind in that damned wheelchair had prevented him from feeling the full moon in all its glory and he would not be missing another one if he could prevent it. To those that had years of experiencing the effects of a full moon and curbing the urge to kill, the heavenly body gave an adrenaline rush like no other as long as the werewolf stayed in complete control. He didn't have the chance enjoy it fully the month before as the man spent most of it keeping a watchful and worrying eye on his cub. Tonight was not only the start of his renewed sense of freedom but also the night he began his venture towards giving his family the peace they deserved.

Tricking Garrison Myers, an ex-insurance investigator who wrote off the mass murder of his family an accident due to a pay-off by the Hunters, into a meeting was almost child's play. His dear nurse Jennifer, the Harley Quinn to his Joker as his comic book fanatic of a niece would put it, was a rather twisted but ingenious hacker who easily got into his employer's phone account and sent a text to show up at Beacon Hills High. Peter shook his head at the idiocy of texting and people's belief that it was always the right person on the other end. Mr. Myers was about to find out how wrong that belief was.

Figuring it was close to the rendezvous time, the Alpha halted his running and let out a piercing howl and waited for his cub to show. Not ten minutes later, the familiar buzz of pack started and Scott showed up in only a pair of shorts and fully shifted. Peter almost whimpered at the essentially empty look in his young Beta's eyes. It saddened him to no end that he had to force control over Scott but hopefully after tonight there would be no need should everything go as planned. There quite a bit of self-control on his part not to shift back to his human form and pull the boy into an embrace but he reigned the feeling in. If things didn't go as plotted out then he couldn't risk Scott being able to remember and revealing his identity to Derek. None of that of course stopped him from nuzzling into the cub's cheek affectionately.

Pleasantries out of the way, Peter let out another howl and raced off towards his and Garrison's meeting point, his protégé keeping up with his pace without difficulty.

The school quickly came into view and the wolf-man could already hear Myers' voice calling out for someone. Fear was already apparent by the tremble in his voice. His terror truly sweetened what Peter was about to do. A light jump over the surrounding fence and the duo were standing before a maze of yellow buses. Peter jerked his head right and gave out a growling command, sending Scott into the maze one way while he went another. Myers was getting impatient and more afraid by the second so Peter decided to have a little fun with his soon to be prey.

"Garrison Myers," he called out, his gravelly voice echoing all around.

"Wh-Who's there?" the frightened man shouted, his heartbeat pounding away at Peter's ears.

"Former insurance inspector suspected of fraud for his inspection of the Hale House Fire. They couldn't have kept you on even if you were innocent, could they? Too much liability. But we both know the truth, don't we Garrison?" he continued, drawing ever closer to his target until the Alpha was basically right on top of Myers without the man even knowing.

"How do you know-"

"All of this? Easy." Peter crept close until he was right next to the man's ear. "I was there."

The older man's screams were music to his ears as he turned to stare at his monstrous visage. A simple swipe of his claws and the little man was bleeding from the chest. The wound would ooze decently but was nowhere near deep enough to kill him. The Alpha planned to make sure the filth before him suffered, if only a fraction of what he truly deserved. Garrison seemed to be in shock as he looked down at the crimson liquid spreading across his chest and palmed the scratch with both hands, smearing blood all over them. He couldn't have his new friend's mind shutting down now could he? Not when there was so much fun to be had.

A thunderous roar to the face brought Myers back to the thinking world and he immediately took off. The poor fool didn't even have the mind to keep running and simply tried to open the latch to a bus's emergency back door. Peter lazily walked up behind the man and with a casual flick of his arm, sent Garrison nearly flying through the tempered glass window and scratching up his face as he slid down the metal. Myers was a bit more resilient than he'd figured as he was up on his feet and finally managed to get the latch turned and climbed inside before slamming the door shut behind him. Peter could have calmly traipsed to the front of the yellow vehicle and slide open the side door but then he noticed Scott, standing statuesque near the door and came to a wonderful conclusion that would at last involve the cub. Another howl had the Beta stalking forward and snapping the locking bar as he opened the door. There was a loud cry of terror as Garrison noticed his protégé letting him know it was time to up the fright factor. Peter stood to his full height and made sure his red eyes connected with Myers's terrified ones before sinking his claws through the top corner and began to slowly pull. The metal made a terrible grinding noise as it gradually bent out of shape. By the time Peter finally opened the door, the inside of the vehicle stunk of overwhelming fear.

"Garrison. Garrison. Garrison. You should have known your crime would eventually come back to haunt you. It was merely a matter of time."

"Please! I didn't mean for things to happen like this! I-"

"Cease your lies, Worm!?" the werewolf roared angrily as he advanced down the aisle.

As soon as Peter was within reach, he picked up the tiny man and tossed him forward making his body bang roughly between the seats like a pinball. No longer amused with torturing Myers, the wolf-man grabbed his victim's ankle and began to drag him to finish the job, the little retch pleading for his life the whole way. Suddenly, the man became harder to move and when Peter looked up, he found Scott holding onto Garrison's arm trying to stop him from completing his revenge. It would seem his young friend was fighting for control. Though he would loathe doing it, the child needed to learn that an Alpha's orders were to be obeyed and only questioned when it put the pack at risk. Peter's wolf wanted to make sure the boy remembered his place with a wound that would last for weeks but that would go against his need for secrecy. His swipe may have splashed a decent amount of blood over a seat and spots along the wall but the scratch was shallow enough that it would slowly heal by morning. The Hale had to harden his heart as he felt Scott's fear and barked out an order to leave, clean himself up and fall back asleep as if nothing had happened.

"Now where were we, Mr. Garrison."

0-0-0-0-0

"So you killed her?" Stiles Stilinski asked as they enter the school building for another eight hours of forced imprisonment.

There were times Scott liked his best friends bluntness, loved it even as his own thick headedness got in the way sometimes and Stiles always made thing easier for him to understand. This however was not one of those times as he seemed utterly casual about the new werewolf's slaughter dream of chasing down and killing Allison on a bus.

"I don't know. I just woke up. I was sweating like crazy and I couldn't breathe. I've never had a dream where I woke up like that before…" Scott rushed out, trying to convey all the uneasiness the nightmare had left behind.

"Really? I have. Usually ends a little differently though…"

And now things were awkward because Stiles internal filter decided to take a vacation again.

"A) I meant I've never had a dream feel that real before and B) never give me that much detail of you in bed again!"

Seriously, Scott had always had a rather vivid imagination that still remained constant even now. Crap like that left some pretty horrible images in his mind!

"Noted. Let me take a guess here though-"

Scott quickly interrupted him. It was obvious what was running through his friend's erratic mind and he had come to the same reasoning as well. The nightmare was a warning of what the werewolf could do if he went out with Allison. His first real chance at a date and he has a chance of ripping her to shreds. Stiles, of course, tried to deny it but a look from him made the spaz word vomit that he agreed one hundred percent. Stiles tried to console him with the fact that he was handling everything 'pretty freaking amazingly' considering there was no _'Lycanthropy for Beginners'_ class he could take. The McCall would have pointed out that Derek was going to teach him when he finally got whatever it was he was doing done, which he hoped was soon, but he didn't feel like having the 'Are we seriously trusting him?' conversation for the hundredth time.

"Maybe it was _just_ a dream. Exactly how real did it feel?" Stiles asked, trying to be optimist for a change.

"Like it actually happened," Scott answered quietly, failing to keep Dream Allison's screams from ringing in his ears.

The werewolf needed some fresh air and headed straight for the double doors at the end of the hall. They stepped through the metal gateway and right into his nightmare. There were bloody hand prints everywhere and the door bent unnaturally with claw marks in the metal. He looked to his friend completely terrified.

"I think it did," Stiles muttered out in shock.

Scott immediately started trying to text Allison, praying to whatever Power-That-Be she was safe. He tried over and over again but never once got an answer. The wolf-boy ran into the school and began frantically looking everywhere for his angel. All the while, his best friend tried to calm him down but he just told him to shut up and help look for her. He turned his head every which way, looking for even the smallest of signs. She had to be okay. His dream couldn't be real. His heart pumped fast and loudly in his ears and the mass of students all around him suddenly made the school feel too small. It was too much. He rushed to the nearest locker and rested his head there, taking in deep breathes and trying to calm down as he felt himself beginning to shift. What eventually helped was a scream of rage, that went surprisingly unnoticed by the hall full of people, and a punch into the locker that left more than a bit of damage and barely hanging by its hinges. When Scott finally came back to reality he saw the destroyed metal and slowly started to back away, only to run into someone.

"You scared the hell out of me!" Allison exclaimed smiling and laughing as she bent down to pick up her books he'd knocked out of her hands.

A relief the likes of which he'd never known filled him as he smiled at his angel and started to help her pick up her stuff, never taking his eyes off her for fear of her disappearing.

"What?" she asked, more than likely noticing his staring.

"Nothing. I'm just happy to see you," he said tiredly after shaking his head out of its dazed state.

She was okay. Alive, breathing, and more beautiful than the first time he met her.

The principal's voice echoed through the halls while they continued to gather Allison's books, telling them that despite there being an 'incident' with one of the buses school would continue like usual.

There was a chorus of groans up and down the hall from students hoping to get the day off.

Scott just stood there after the announcement and soaked in Allison's presence before she ruffled his hair, which felt way better than should be normal, and made him promise to save her a seat at lunch, then left. He kept his eyes zeroed in on her until he lost sight and started to head for Chemistry. The werewolf only took a couple steps before hearing metal rattling. He turned to see Jackson fiddling with the locker that he'd made concave which was apparently his. It took nearly biting his cheek off to keep from laughing when the lacrosse star noticed his staring and called him an 'asswipe'. Stiles was going to totally get a kick out of that story.

It seemed any sense of calm about his nightmare was directly linked to Allison's presence as ten minutes into Mr. Harris's lesson on something he couldn't even pronounce he started to think about what he'd seen of the bus. If he hadn't done that to Allison, what did happen?

"Maybe it was my blood on the door," he whispered to Stiles, who was at the desk behind him.

"Could have been animal blood, you know?"

That could be good. He didn't really enjoy the idea of killing an animal but maybe it was in self-defense.

"Maybe you caught a rabbit or something?"

Okay, so Stiles was going in a completely different direction animal wise.

"And did what?

"Ate it…"

"Raw?!" he whisper shouted.

Scott would like to say the idea disgusted him to no end but his growling stomach and his mouth watering told him otherwise. Must have been some werewolf thing, stupid lycanthropy was already messing with his appetite and making him eat twice as much as normal. Now it was just getting worse.

"No, you stopped to bake it in a little werewolf oven. I don't know. You're the one who can't remember anything," the spaz spat out sarcastically.

And now he had the image of him sitting on the ground fully wolfed out with a bloody 'Beware the Chef' apron on and a little oven going with bloody bunny ears poking out from the door crack. The wolf-boy was about to say more when Mr. Harris seemed to finally catch them. There was a feeling of smugness that bordered on sadistic coming from the man when he ordered them to separate. They reluctantly followed the command but didn't really get the chance to get comfortable in the impossibly uncomfortable chairs when the girl Scott sat next to jumped up screaming about the people outside finding something. Mr. Harris never stood a chance of getting them in order as them mobbed the windows. Everyone watched as some EMTs rushed a gurney towards an ambulance.

"That's not a rabbit…" he whispered to Stiles.

There was a chorus of screams and near jumping out of their skins all around as the man on the gurney lurched up and started screaming his head off, the deputies nearby having to hold him while the EMTs strapped him down.

Scott slowly backed away from the glass portal with a realization.

"This is good! This is good!" Stiles rushed out. "He got up! Dead guys can't do that!"

"Stiles…I did that…"

Class passed slowly after that, the whole time Scott's focus was entirely on the fact that he'd brutally attacked someone and had no memory of it happening. Was that what happened when someone was too weak to control the wolf? They lose their minds and go on killing sprees for no reason? He needed Derek's help more than ever now.

The teen didn't really get the chance to talk to Stiles after that as they had separate classes until lunch rolled around. So when the bell rang, Scott sprinted for the cafeteria so fast he could probably make the track team no sweat. His best friend fully earned the title as he was waiting patiently, by Stiles standards that meant perpetually twitching in one spot, for him at the end of the lunch line when he arrived. Stiles immediately began telling him everything he'd come up with in the couple of hours he'd had to think. All of it culminating to the fact that dreams weren't memories.

"Well then it wasn't a dream! Something happened last night and I can't remember what…"

Scott slumped to the table before his friend started up again.

"And what makes you so sure Derek has all the answers? And don't give me that look, this is an honest question. I mean…_if_ you did do something, that can't be normal right? Werewolves wouldn't be able to still be hiding if all this happened on a regular basis."

"All I know it that during the full moon, Derek was in complete control while I was running around in the middle of the night attacking some totally innocent guy!"

His friend tried to say that he didn't know that but for once, logic was on his side when he countered that he didn't not know that. Scott visibly deflated as he concluded that going out with Allison was possibly the worst thing he could do right now. When he told Stiles that, the guy gave a rather intense speech about how he shouldn't have to cancel his life just because he was a werewolf and that they'd figure something out. And that was why despite the times he got crap for being friends with him, the Stilinski boy was best friend number one.

"Figure what out?"

The duo stared in shock as Lydia Martin sat at their table. They'd seen a mauled guy jump up and cry out in terror early but this took the cake on the weirdness scale.

"Uh…just…homework," Scott answered after realizing they'd been too quiet for too long.

Soon the weirdness factor increased as others began to join them at the long table. Scott and Stiles weren't deluded to the fact that most people thought they were complete losers. This was shown by the fact that besides each other, they didn't really have any other friends. But now they had Danny, one of Lydia's popular female friends, a Jackson goon, Allison, and finally Jackson who made the goon move from his seat at the end of the table sitting with them. When the guy asked why Jackson never made Danny move, Danny answered with the fact that he didn't stare at Lydia's coin-slot. The guy moved quickly and the captain took his seat.

"So I heard it was some kind of animal attack. Probably a cougar?" Danny started, opening the conversation everyone but Scott and Stiles wanted to have.

"I heard mountain lion," Jackson said, putting in his two cents.

"A cougar is a mountain lion," announced Lydia and Scott simultaneously, which had the pair looking at each other oddly while everyone else at the table stared.

"But there's probably a better chance it was a bear," Scott swiftly added, hoping to take attention from himself. His plan backfired.

"How the hell do you figure that, McCall?" asked coin-slot, which he had no idea what that was, guy loudly.

All focus was on him at that point and made him realize he couldn't take back what he'd said.

"Well…just look at the situation and the animal. A cougar would never wander into such a visible area as a mostly empty parking lot where as bears have been known to simply go where they please and tear cars apart just for being there, which would explain the way the bus door was bent so much. A fully grown cougar caps out at between a hundred thirty and a hundred eighty pounds. It simply doesn't have the mass or strength to bend metal, especially with how far the door was off the ground. There is also, like I said, too much open space and a cougar's preferred means of hunting are ambushes. _If_ it managed to find a hiding spot then the guy would be dead as the cougar would wait until he turned his back before lunging for his neck and snapping it with its jaws where as a bear would beat at him until he lost consciousness or played dead then walked away, which would explain how he's still alive."

By the time Scott finished, the table had gone completely silent as almost everyone, Stiles included, stared at him slack jawed shock except for Allison who had a look of surprised awe.

Allison gazed in wonder at her boyfriend, or at least that what she hoped he was. The girl knew Scott wasn't the most academically inclined. On more than one occasion she'd seen Stiles, quite possibly the quirkiest boy she'd ever met, helping him try to figure out homework. But apparently what he lacked in school knowledge he made up for in any and all things animal. When Lydia's friend asked about how he knew so much about the giant felines, Scott told everyone about how his boss had been called on more than one occasion where one of the cats had gotten into a fight with a stray or someone's pet.

"And the bear?"

"Uh…let's just say something happened at the beginning of school one year and I got into a very interesting game of tag with one and leave it that?" Scott asked her nervously.

Now she was even more interest in finding out what happened but she wasn't insensitive enough to ask about it in front of everyone.

"Wasn't that the year that thing with Ryan happened?"

Allison watched as the simple mentioning of some guy's name made Scott entire body stiffen while he fisted his hands until his knuckles turned white. Whoever that Ryan person was, he was someone the boy beside her didn't want to think about. She suddenly felt the urge to be protective of him and was about to tell the guy to be quiet but he just kept going.

"It was, wasn't it? Dude, that was a totally epic day! Allison, you probably don't know this yet but McCall fights like a wild beast! Completely destroyed a guy named Ryan's face! Had to go to the hospital and get the bones in his face reassembled and everything! Just tackled him to the ground and pounded away at the guy until there was blood everywhere! One of Ryan's friends tried to pull McCall off and got a broken nose for it! The icing on all of it? They were both older and a head taller than him!"

Scott? Hurting someone? Sweet adorable Scott who just the other day she visited while he was at work and found him playfully wrestling with a horse sized Great Dane? There was no way he'd hurt a fly, much less a person.

"I thought we were talking about the attack, not McCall's anger management issues. Anyways, who cares who the victim was? It's probably just some homeless tweaker, who's going to die anyways."

Stiles quickly proved his insensitive comment wrong as he pulled up a video on his phone. The local news channel seemed to have finally gotten the chance to put out a story about the attack.

"_Sherriff's department won't speculate on details of the incident but have confirmed the victim, Garrison Myers, did survive the attack. Myers was taken to a local hospital where he remains in critical condition."_

"I-I know this guy!" Scott stutteringly exclaimed to her and the rest of the tables shock.

"You do?"

"Yeah, when I used to take the bus a year or so after Max left. He was the driver…"

It went completely quiet after Scott finished and Allison used it to wonder who the Max guy, whose name seemed to annoy him greatly, he mentioned was.

"Can we talk about something slightly more fun, please?" asked Lydia, breaking the heavy silence. "Like… Oh! Where are we going tomorrow night?"

The Argent girl looked at the strawberry blonde in utter confusion.

"You said, you and Scott were hanging out tomorrow night, right?"

Oh, she didn't like where this was going.

0-0-0-0-0

Derek jerked awake at the sound of a rumbling engine pulled to a stop in front of his dilapidated old house. The wolf-man jumped to his feet from the mattress he'd been sleeping on and slowly stalked to a broken window. It was another cop doing a routine checkup to see if any of the local delinquents had come and tagged his family home. If there was one thing that made the police okay for the werewolf, it was the fact that they'd done an impeccable job on that front. He watched as the cop slowly exited his cruiser, his body betraying the immense unease he felt being there. The man gave a quick look around before radioing in.

"Looks pretty deserted, Dispatch. Uh…still want me to take a look inside?"

The werewolf bristled when the voice through the radio said his family's territory was county property. His family still legally owned all the land, even with Peter comatose and Laura and him not being around for years. The officer and Dispatch argued about doing a more thorough sweep of the place before the man finally gave in and started heading for the front door, making Derek curse.

And then the police canine in the backseat barked.

Derek slowly smirked before flaring a dominating presence to the animal. The moment the dog's eyes connected with his, he flashed them icy blue that sent the pup into a frenzied state. The canine barked incessantly, drool spraying everywhere, at its partner in fear to the point of trying to escape through an impossibly small gap in the vehicle's window. The cop took one look at his partner then one at the house before taking off. Relief flooded him as the cruiser's tail lights disappeared into the trees.

He wondered if there was an off chance he could get a little more sleep but nixed the thought as moments later his little brother came creeping out of the woods.

"Derek…I know you're there… I need your help."

As soon as Derek opened the door, the younger male began talking. Apologizing for letting the Hunters know he was there, even though they already knew, for getting him arrested and for harboring the idea that he could kill their sister. Then he got to the part that he was really there for. The fact that the Alpha had called him out during the full moon the night before and he couldn't remember anything that had happened. His 'dream' about attacking someone, most likely Allison by the way he paused, but someone else got hurt and that the 'dream' may have been more real than he wanted it too.

"You think you attacked the driver," the wolf-man pointed out bluntly.

"Did you see what I did last night?" Scott hurriedly asked with an undertone of accusation and tension.

"No."

His little brother breathed out a sigh of relief. Whether he was ashamed of what Derek might have seen, relieved that it wasn't him who was there with Scott, or both was unknown.

"Then can you at least tell me the truth… Am I going to hurt someone?" the boy asked, sounding more tired than he'd ever heard.

"Yes."

"Could I kill someone?"

"Yes."

"Am I going to kill someone?!"

"Probably."

Derek felt like he was punching his little brother in the gut with every answer but now wasn't the time to coddle him. In the beginning, any werewolf, born or bitten, was a danger to themselves and those around them. Scott needed to understand that if there was any chance of him gaining control. It did not however stop him from pull his brother, who looked like he was about to collapse, into a strong embrace. Scott latched on to him as if he was the glue holding the young wolf together which was probably the truth. His little brother truly despised the idea of hurting others, if he were to kill someone it might very well shatter his mind; something the born wolf resolved to never let happen if he could help it. Finally pulling away, Derek kept a strong grip on the boy's shoulders and made sure he looked him in the eyes.

"Scott, I can show you how to remember. I can show you how to control the shift, even on a full moon." The wolf-man paused for a moment before relenting to the fact that he needed to start telling Scott what was going on. "But I'm going to need your help with something, something that has to do with what happened to Laura."

The younger werewolf's eyes widened and he quickly agreed to do anything that would help. Derek then gave a vague explanation of what most wolves called 'sense recall'. It worked differently for everyone so he could really only give the base instructions and leave the rest up to him.

Things were definitely going to get more hectic once his little brother found out about the Alpha.

0-0-0-0-0

There were no ifs, ands, or buts about it, Stiles was the brains of his and Scott's friendship. Scott being the dingus that he is wanted to go check the bus as soon as he got back from talking to Derek. Fortunately for the newbie wolf, Stiles was around to stop him doing something stupid and came up with a serious plan to accomplish the task. The benefits of being the Sheriff's son never ended as he was able to get the exact time when the deputies his dad was posting at the school would be switching out. With a window of opportunity now available, they waited till just before midnight to make their move.

They pulled up, headlights off to keep hidden, just as the guard disappeared around the building and quickly climbed out and started for the fence.

"Wait, no! Just me! Someone has to keep watch!"

Oh hell no, Stiles was not getting stuck with lookout duty!

"Why do I always get stuck keeping watch?!" he asked, even though that question was completely invalid as most of the time he was the one doing the law breaking but that wasn't the point.

"Because there's only two of us!"

"Okay, why is this starting to sound like your Batman and I'm Robin? I don't want to be Robin all the time!"

"Nobody's Batman or Robin any of the time!"

"Not even some of the time?"

Well that kind of sucked. And why couldn't they be Batman and Robin some of the time? They earned the title of 'Dynamic Duo' a long time ago with how much trouble they got into. Even switched who was the Dark Knight and Boy Wonder from time to time.

"Just stay here!"

"Oh my god!" Stiles exclaim, throwing his hands up in the air and stomping back to his car while his friend scaled the fence.

It was total bullshit him getting stuck as a look out. He could be Batman just as well as Scott in their current situation. He'd be a badass one too! But no, Scott got to be the one to go because he needed to 'remember' what happened. So right now he was playing the sidekick roll of Robin but he was most definitely the Dick Grayson one! The one that turned awesome and became Nightwing during his solo career and then eventually Batman himself when Bruce Wayne 'died'.

Stiles was drawn from his musing of what exactly all the little pockets on the Batman family's utility belts held by a moving light coming from the new deputy on guard's flashlight. He immediately began beeping the horn and after what felt like forever, Scott finally jumped out of the bus. The spaz watched in begrudging amazement as his friend raced up a parked SUV and gracefully flipped over the fence into a perfect tumble before racing to the passenger side door. The door had barely clicked shut when Stiles shifted into reverse and slammed on the gas. A totally Batman worthy vehicle sling around later and they were out of there.

High on the jolt of epinephrine* in his system, the buzzed cut teen rushed out his question of whether or not Scott had remembered anything. He quickly confirmed that he was in fact there and that a lot of the blood might have actually been his. Not a good sign in Stiles book. When he questioned the werewolf if he really did attack the driver and was relieved to find out his friend wasn't going around mindlessly attacking people. His police-raised mind instantly went to Derek for the real perpetrator but Scott hastily shot it down as he said the thing 'felt' different. Stiles was hard pressed to believe it but if that was the truth that could only mean one thing. There was another werewolf running around Beacon Hills. Scott paled when he told him the theory; at least he was hoping it was just a theory. Their small town wasn't equipped to deal with a psychotic werewolf running around killing people and he sure as hell didn't want his dad trying to track down the thing. There was a bit more relief when his friend told him he thought he was trying to protect Myers after he asked about the man.

"It has to be a pack thing, you know? Like an initiation! You do the kill together!"

"Because ripping someone's throat out is a real bonding experience?" the freaked wolf asked, completely confused.

"But you didn't do it! Which means you're not a killer! And it also means-"

"I can go out with Allison!"

Wow, his best friend really had a one track mind when it came to that girl.

"I was gonna say it means you won't kill me…"

"Oh yeah… That too," Scott said slowly as if just realizing that was just as important.

Stiles sent a silent prayer to his mom that he would live long enough to be devirginized.

**ASDFASDFASDF**

**So…that happened…hopefully you all enjoyed.**

**And to those questioning Peter's behavior towards Scott, I have a perfectly good explanation. That I will reveal later.**

**Also I'm very aware that that last part was kind of rushed. I just felt kind of bad for taking so long and I really wanted to get this out. Don't worry, I will try to never take this long to update again.**


	11. Pack Mentality Part 2

**Hiyo everybody. Hope everyone is enjoying life. So this chapter you guys might find a bit weird. You see, the second half of this episode jumps around more than a little kid on sugar so I'm unscrambling them. Also, just to point out, the first part was more me wanting to have a bit of fun than advancing the plot. That's what the big second half is for.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Teen Wolf. I could never come up with this much awesome.**

**ASDFASDFASDF**

Confidence wasn't a strange word to Allison Argent. It was a natural feeling for her most of her life and when it wasn't, her parents pushed her until it was.

Scott McCall, of course, didn't get that memo and had her tearing through her closet with Lydia for something that would impress him. He'd said she made him nervous. Well right now the feeling was mutual. The worst part was her new friend didn't seem to like a thing Allison picked out. The strawberry blonde finally took mercy on her and began looking through her wardrobe herself. She made a joke about her tastes after passing over a few items before finally coming to something she liked. Lydia looked her over once as if visualizing how it would look before handing her the dark brown sequin shirt with approval. Her confidence came back with a vengeance as she held up the shirt and check herself out in the mirror. She made a mental note to never question Lydia's fashion powers ever. Scott wouldn't know what hit him.

She was about to shrug off her jacket and start changing when her dad suddenly walked in.

"Dad? Hello…"

"Right. I'm sorry. I completely forgot to knock."

At least he looked apologetic for just walking into her room unannounced.

"Hey, Mr. Argent," chirped Lydia as she laid back in a rather appealing, to guys anyways, fashion.

Dear lord, tell her Lydia wasn't trying to flirt with her dad.

Allison finally asked what her dad needed and got the shock of her life when he told her she would be staying home. She tried to explain that she was going out with her friends but he immediately shot her down. This was a bit abnormal for him as he was usually the 'fun' parent. That didn't mean he wasn't strict, it just always seemed her mother was the harder of the two to convince to let her do things. If she was being honest, her dad did have a point with the fact that there was a wild animal running around and that there was a police enforced curfew but that didn't stop her from trying to get her way.

"Hey. No more arguing."

Apparently all he needed was to ruin her plans for the night and walked away.

"Someone's daddy's little girl," Lydia pointed out teasingly.

"Sometimes…but not tonight."

Allison was guilty of being a daddy's girl, she wouldn't deny that, but there was no way he was stopping her from going out and having a good time with her best friend and Scott. Resolved in that fact, she pulled on a loose fitting beany, checked herself over one time to see if she looked good even without Lydia's choose, and headed for the window. A quick crawl out the window and a flipping dismount later and she was ground level, smiling up at her friend's surprised face.

"Eight years gymnastics. You coming?"

"I'll take the stairs," Lydia whispered, sounding thoroughly terrified at the idea of jumping off the roof.

A minute later she came walking out the front door and the two dashed to Lydia's illegally driven car. Allison wasn't sure how her friend got away with driving unsupervised at fifteen but didn't question it as they took off for the bowling alley to meet up with Scott and Jackson.

Despite her lack of looking incredible in her sequin shirt, Scott barely took his eyes off her when they got to the alley. It earned him a well-deserved long kiss that she'd fully intended to give him anyways. Greetings done all around, though Jackson only really acknowledged her and Lydia, the boys paid for everything and they headed for their designated lane. Like the experienced bowler she was, Allison set off to find the perfect ball with Scott. He seemed impressed that she knew what she was doing and she confidently told him how she used to bowl a lot with her dad. Her dad had been a bit busier in the last place they lived and didn't ever seem to have the time to go with her so she was hoping tonight would be fun. Finding the orb she was looking for, she asked when the last time Scott had bowled and funnily enough, it had been a birthday party.

Once everything got set up, Lydia went up first and Jackson snuck behind and helped her bowl. It was nice seeing Jackson doing something sweet like that. The girl must not have bowled very much as the first go she hit the gutter and the second only knock over a few. Of course the whole time Lydia was up, she was covering her mouth to keep from giggling too loudly as Scott had a mini freak out at the fact that her friend was left handed. So far the night had been totally worth disobeying her dad. Next up was her and with skill and ease sent the ball right down the center into a strike. Jackson went after her and got a strike as well. Maybe she was going to have some competition from him. Scott was last up but he seemed really nervous and his movements were stiff. It showed when both rolls went straight into the gutter. Jackson and Lydia were laughing up a storm at him and Jackson cracked some pretty harsh jokes and taunts. She tried to reassure Scott but wasn't sure if it helped any.

Scott seemed even more nervous second time around by the way he seemed to bouncing from one foot to the other in the same spot over and over so Allison decided to try and calm him down a bit.

"Scott! You're thinking too much."

"I know… I'm sorry I'm ruining this…"

Was that why he was acting so strangely? He thought that if he messed up, she was going to say no the next time he asked her out? As adorable as that was, boys were ridiculous.

"No, no, not at all! But I wouldn't mind shutting them up."

'Them' being Jackson and Lydia, who had yet to stop making jokes at him and had more than likely made his nervousness even worse.

"So…just clear your head and think about something else."

"Like what?"

That was a good question. What could distract him completely from his extreme case of nerves? A rather bold suggestion entered her mind.

"Think about me…naked!"

She walked back to her seat and all the blood in her body rushed to her face as she sat down. Allison Argent, daddy's little girl and known goodie-two-shoes, had just knowingly given a boy she liked permission to think about her in the buff. Something that made her tingle all over was the fact that she wasn't against the idea of him having to not imagine it.

Apparently that was all Scott needed as he loosened up and smashed through all the pins like a pro.

"What did you say to him?" Lydia asked in wonder as Scott took his seat again.

"I uh…just gave him something to think about."

Thirty minutes later and Scott had continued to get a strike every time he went up, a feat not even her and Jackson had managed to accomplish.

"That is seriously amazing!" Feeling a bit smug, she turned to Scott's biggest naysayer. "Jackson uh…how many strikes is that?"

"It's six…in a row," he grounded out, his annoyance clear as day which she probably enjoyed a bit more than she should.

There was a slightly awkward moment between Scott and Lydia after that before Lydia went up to bowl. Jackson tried to help like he had every other time but she brushed him off. The girl's entire being seemed to shift as she sent ball gliding down the lane and knocking over every pin for the first time that night. She walked back and tried to play off her perfect form as 'getting the hang of it' but Allison finally saw what was going on. Lydia was doing bad and letting Jackson 'help' to make him feel better about himself. When she tried to call her out on it, all she got was a comment that painted a picture she'd rather have not seen.

The night did eventually end with her sanity fully intact but the brunette made a point to_ never_ go on a double date with Lydia again, no matter how much she loved the girl. Thankfully the ride home was nice as her and Lydia planned for shopping trip the next day. Though she didn't miss the chocking noise from the back seat from Scott, Stiles fell through as his ride home, when Lydia mentioned hitting up Victoria's Secret.

"So uh…do you think we could…'hangout' soon?" Scott asked as he walked her to her door after Lydia dropped them off.

"Definitely. But I have to admit something. Um I'm not big on group dates so next time...just the two of us."

He looked about as pleased as she felt about the idea. Allison gave him a quick kiss goodnight and was headed for the door only to be pulled back into the personal space of one Scott McCall. The kiss he pulled her into was in a word 'mind-blowing'. The boy had amazing talent and when they finally pulled apart, she actually felt giddy. Another quick kiss and she finally made it inside.

It was a completely girly-girl reaction but she actually had to lean back on the door to keep herself standing and let out a high pitched squeal.

"So I take it you had fun?"

Allison froze up for a second before slowly turning to her dad.

She was in so much trouble.

0-0-0-0-0

There were very few things in the world that settled Derek nerves when the werewolf got into a particularly unstable mood.

Laura who over the last few years since the fire had pulled him back from letting his guilt, pain and anger become the anchor to his wolf and to life. She had kept his monsters at bay when nothing else could.

Too bad his sister now laid at peace with the rest of their family.

One more recently developed ones was his little brother. Being around Scott had always been easy, as if he'd always been by his side but now it was even stronger than that. Even at moments of intense seriousness, the kid managed to bring out the old him; the one not burdened with having had a hand in the deaths of most of his pack and who could joke and laugh without feeling guilty.

Too bad he was the current reason for his stress.

But there was one thing that still remained, one being who still had his back from the moment he met her. Nina, his custom built, midnight black, 400 horsepower, V8 2009 Camaro and the best present he'd ever gotten from his sister. When he was having a bad day, all he had to do was hop in the beauty and drive. And by drive he meant finding nearest forested area with winding back roads, a hard find around New York, and tearing through it like a madman. The woods gave his wolf the sense of home and running while the focus needed to control around tricky corners took his mind off of everything.

The last was what he just got done doing. The reason why he was stressed? Scott had yet to get back to him about what he saw from the bus and there was no way he was going to Stiles, who no doubt had been there when Scott had gone back, to find out what happened. Trust was not an easy thing for the wolf-man and didn't trust that scrawny nutjob no matter how much his little brother vouched for him. Since the new wolf had yet to contact him, Derek had no new leads on the Alpha. No new leads on the Alpha meet he was wandering around blind which is not something his kind did when there was a rogue wolf running around killing people. So the only thing he could do at the moment was go see if the bus driver had woken up yet. And the cherry on top of all that bull was the two SUVs that had been 'oh-so-subtlety' following after him since he'd come back to town for gas. There was no doubt in his mind they would follow him all night long had he had the fuel so the werewolf figured it was best to stop and see what they wanted.

Derek was the picture of nonchalance when he pulled up to a gas station. Casually getting out of the vehicle, swiping his card, popping off the fuel cap and starting the pump like he had nothing to fear from the men who actively hunted his kind. It was quite entertaining when the pair of Tahoes pincer his car in and his acting as if it was an everyday occurrence. The look on the two henchmen's faces were unnerved like they really expected to sneak up on a werewolf, they had to be new to the game, but Chris Argent was another story. He knew the full extent of their capabilities, probably since he was old enough to hold a weapon, and that's why he had a smug grin spread across his face. Chris knew that he would catch onto them but that he still had the upper hand. Derek couldn't defend himself like normal out in the open and there were three of them, all no doubt packing more than strictly legal artillery.

When the Hunters got out, the werewolf just continued on with his own business. Chris didn't decide to approach him until he finished up and twisted the cap back on. Strangely no one was around and the station clerk was either pissing his pants and calling the cops or being smart and staying out of it completely.

"Nice ride. Black cars though," the Hunter took a swipe over his hood as if dirt was caked on it, "very hard to keep clean. I would definitely suggest a bit more maintenance."

Derek, for his part, wanted to call 'bullshit' on the man as he took great care when it came to his car. Regular trips to the local garage and a wash ever couple of day, someone did drive in the places he did without getting a little mud on the tires, were just the tip of the iceberg. Even worse, his girl was in pristine condition with the only smudges on it being from the Argent's fingers. As he started cleaning Nina's windshield, the man began spouting off about how if someone had something nice, they should feel the urge to take care of it. That he himself was very protective of those he loved, something any decent werewolf could tell as the man, despite being human and by Hunter law only a soldier, gave off the air of an Alpha. It was like someone rubbing salt in an open wound when he commented that he learned to be like that from his family which he unabashedly pointed out that his was dwindling. He never figured Chris for dishing out cheap shots like that but people learned new things every day. It took a great deal of restraint and the knowledge that without him Scott would either join the Alpha's pack or die to look Kate's older brother in the eye and stop himself from getting in at least one good lick.

"There we go. You can actually look through your windshield now. See how it makes everything so much clearer?"

A smarter wolf would have let the Hunter walk away, let his 'natural' enemy leave in peace. Too bad Derek wasn't known for being smarter and the fact that his wolf demanded he at least say something about the way the man had talked to them.

"You forgot to check the oil."

Chris turned back to him with an easy smile and asked one of his lackeys to take a look. The one that stank of more fear tried to play the part of tough guy and walked up and 'checked' his oil, aka shattering his driver side window with the butt of his weapon, before telling his boss everything looked fine.

"You drive safely."

Message delivered, the Hunters loaded up and rolled out like nothing had happened.

After cleaning up the glass and taking another 'drive' in Beacon Hills' back roads, Derek finally made his way to the hospital. The wolf-man, or really any other supernatural being with a sharp sense of smell, hated places like this; sterile air that burned the nose and if someone managed to get passed that, the whole building rank of death and illness minus the maternity ward most of the time. It would be kind of weird going to Mrs. McCall's work without checking on Peter so after a quick visit he was back to the task at hand. Oddly enough, Mrs. McCall was the driver's active nurse which made him pause as he couldn't be caught by someone who would recognize him. It was kind of amazing watching Scott's mom in her element, doing a quick exam of Myers, making sure everything was working right and writing everything down with a practiced ease. When she finally left the room she seemed satisfied that the man was okay but she couldn't have been more wrong. An air of death was rapidly expanding from the room which meant he didn't have much time. Using his senses to check for other nurses who might be making their rounds, Derek ghosted into the room with no one the wiser.

Smelling the air grow thicker and thicker with by the second, the born wolf knew he couldn't wait.

"Open your eyes. Open your eyes. Look at me."

It took a minute or two but the man finally came to, staring at him in a half-asleep stupor, not what Derek needed right now but it might work more to his advantage if the man thought he was dreaming. Maybe loosen his tongue a bit more.

"What do you remember?"

"Hale…"

There were many things Derek hadn't expected to hear but Garrison knowing his family's name reached the very top.

"How do you know my name?"

"I'm sorry…"

"How do you know me?!"

"I'm sorry…"

The man slowly laid back and the Hale knew he wouldn't be able to get more out of him. A quick use of his senses later and he was down the hall. By the time he turned the corner, the long beep of Myers' flat lining and the nurses rushing to save him reached his ears.

The drive back to his home was a frustratingly, silent one. He'd learned nothing from the driver and ended up with even more questions. Did the Alpha have a reason for attacking Myers? How did Myers know who he was? Were they connected? Derek had to restrain himself from snapping the steering wheel in his hands. Mentally exhausted, the man dragged himself upstairs when he got to the house, determined to lie down for a while and try to take a nap. Or he was until Scott burst through his front door.

"Derek! I know you're here! You need to tell me what's going on! The driver… He… He…"

If Derek had a choose, telling Scott everything right at that moment wasn't good timing but he also knew now that not telling him was neither fair nor safe for the young werewolf.

It really just wasn't his night.

"He died," the Hale stated simply as he came out into the open and slowly made his way down the stairs.

"You attacked him!"

"I didn't do anything."

"And Laura…"

"Laura went missing, I came looking for her here. I found her in pieces being used as bait by the Hunters to catch me."

Scott slumped to the floor, curling into his knees as the weight of the truth and everything else hit him.

Derek, seeing the effect his words had, went to place a comforting hand on the boy's shoulder only to have a clawed hand wrap around his own. Suddenly, Scott's head jerked up fully shifted and roared in his face. Before he knew what was happening, the older wolf was sent flying through the wall and sliding across the dusty floor. He hopped up easily and casually dusted himself off before shrugging off his jacket and shifting as well. The primal growl from Scott told him everything he needed to know. This wasn't just Scott letting his grief take control. This was him releasing everything that had built up from that first full moon on the night of the party until now, all in one go. He had simply suppressed too much and now it had finally found a way out, luckily away from anyone that could really get hurt and it was going to stay that way as long as Derek was around to occupy him.

The Hale slowly backed up as the younger wolf came through the hole he'd created. The younger supernatural kept his distance at first, his wolf more than likely sizing up what it knew was a more experienced being but would fight him none the less. When the boy finally charged, it was wild and easy to predict so he quickly grabbed hold of him and spun around using the momentum to send the newer wolf smashing into the wall. The wolf-man did it a couple more times before spinning back around and flinging the cub over a table. Just because he took no pleasure of any kind fighting his little brother, didn't mean he wasn't going to defend himself. Scott was up pretty quickly and rolled out of the way when he jumped forward to try and pin him and even managed to get in a punch to his face when Derek went to recover. His second attempt however was easily blocked and countered with a blow of his own and then another that sent the cub flying back. Again he was up a second later and slowly crept towards a table to more than likely get a higher vantage point. It was all for not as Derek used the table as a springboard to launch himself feet first right into Scott's chest, sending the boy flying backwards again. The new wolf then showed once again how even in the misted of losing control of the wolf he was still there, he dodge his next attack and grabbed an oar, his dad had been a collector of boat memorabilia, and smacked him across the face and sent him tumbling back to the floor.

"Okay, now this is getting old," Derek growled out.

He rolled to the side and up to his knees when his little brother decided to continue his assault with the boating instrument. A strong sweep of his arm at Scott's feet sent the boy flipping through the air and slamming hard into the wood flooring. He finally seemed to be slowing down which Derek capitalized on and grabbed him by the throat when he flipped over. With inhuman strength, he lifted his brother up and slammed him down before doing again. Thinking it was getting close to the end, Derek backed off. Only Scott's inner wolf didn't know when it was beat and had him slowly pushing himself to his feet. This was answered with a kick to the stomach that sent the teen over a burned TV set. It might have been a low blow but the fight needed to end before Scott really got himself hurt. Derek growled in annoyance when he just got right back up again and perched himself on the TV. Knowing there was no other way, when Scott lunged for him, the older wolf raked his claws across the cub's chest.

The very human groans of his little brother told him it was finally over and Derek slowly shifted back himself.

"Why did you do this to me, Derek…"

"I didn't."

"How could it not be you?!"

"Because my bite doesn't do anything!" the older male exclaimed, his mental exhausted from earlier having doubled making him slightly irritable.

Scott's ears twitching letting him know he was listening for the lie in his heartbeat. He let out a relieved sigh and placed his hand over his own rapidly beating heart, only to jolt when his hand came into contact with the blood left behind by his scratch. The boy slowly back away, dropped onto a dilapidated couch and huffed out a laugh.

"I knew it wasn't you. I could feel it."

Most werewolves had to make an effort to hear the change of heartbeat that was lying but after the fire, Derek practiced until it was second nature. He would never allow anyone trick him like Kate had again. That being said, his eyes widened as he didn't hear the tick in his little brother's heart. That fact alone did something to him he would never be able to explain in his lifetime. Scott had such complete faith in him that his opinion never wavered against him. The younger male saw only good intent in him and had only goaded him for the answers that would confirm his belief in the older male.

"But that means Stiles was right. There's another wolf…"

The wolf-man begrudgingly gave another point to the spazzy teen. Maybe he wasn't as useless as he seemed.

"It's called an Alpha. It's the most dangerous of our kind. You and I are Betas. This thing is more powerful, more animal than either of us. Laura came here looking for him and now I'm trying to do the same. But I can't do that without you."

"Why me?" he asked sounding as terrified as he should be.

"Because he's the one that bit you. You're part of his pack. It's you, Scott. You're the one he wants."

**ASDFASDFASDF**

**So hopefully everything was to your guys' satisfaction.**

**Tell me what you think and I'll see you next time. Now who might be coming into the picture next chapter?**

**PS: I do actually spaz out whenever I see someone doing something complicated with their left hand. I don't know why but it just freaks me the hell out! Goodbye.**


	12. Magic Bullet Part 1

**Heyo peoples! How goes things? Sorry for this being late again. Kind of decided to skip working on it Saturday like I usually do and then Sunday just got ganked from underneath me. Anyways, who's ready for some more fun?**

**Disclaimer: My name is neither Jeff nor is my last name Davis.**

**ASDFASDFASDF**

Derek officially hated the factory district of Beacon Hills.

The wolf-man had been right on the trail of the Alpha when the monster had cut into 'Sensory Overload Hell'. The place was burning his nose with the rank of smog, burnt rubber, and the musty stench of years of disuse. And though a fair few of the businesses had closed down, the clinking and scrapping of heavy machinery in the ones still running were just loud enough to disrupt the airwaves. All of which culminated to him not being able to follow the scent of the Alpha nor listen for movement in unusual places.

It was enough to make him want to send one of the many dumpsters around him through a brick wall.

He was just about to do so when his ears picked up the sound of shotgun fire echoing over everything else. Not just a regular pump action shotgun either, this was law enforcement grade firepower and he doubted the police would find a use for it in the area. Small town and a decent police force equaled small crime rate. Logic dictated that it was a Hunter in trouble and the primal howl that soon followed confirmed it. Even at top speed, it still took a bit before he found the right general area. He only froze up for a moment when he got a whiff of a scent he hadn't smelled in years; the same one that had been all over the place the day of the fire. It appeared Kate's taste in perfume hadn't changed over the years. Derek cursed. If Kate was in town, things were only going to get harder for him and Scott. The wolf-man shook his head clear and went back to the task at hand and zeroed in on the blood that he had caught a whiff of when he arrived.

The man crouched down when he found a few droplets of blood. Kate must have gotten a decent shot off if the Alpha was still bleeding from a basic shotgun slug, wolfsbane didn't work efficiently with scatterguns or smaller automatic weapons which was why most Hunters carried rifles, some type of arrow weapon or handguns. Suddenly, he felt like someone was trying to burn a hole through him from above and lo and behold there was the Alpha glaring down at him from a rooftop. His target in sight, the werewolf took off, getting over every obstacle and scaling up the side of the building with an ease that would make a freerunner green with envy. He followed after the impossibly fast blur and went to jump across to the next roof when a shot went off and struck him midair. Derek fell a good ten stories at least before crashing into a lower tin roof and rolling off that to drop the rest of the way to the ground.

Suffice to say, he was in no small amount of pain. It would be expected that the main source would be the fall. A few broken ribs were just the tip of the iceberg of injuries from that. But at the moment, he'd of done it another ten or twenty times if it meant not feeling the blistering agony from where his bicep had been shot. Now Derek had known the pains of wolfsbane since just after his first transition. He'd convinced Laura to shoot him with a aconite-laced bullet to 'get a feel for it' in case something happened, much to his mother's disapproval when she found out after Laura chickened out when it came time to dig out the bullet. But this was different. Sure wolfsbane burned but this was like someone had taken a syringe and pumped lemon juice into his bloodstream and he'd never heard of blue smoke coming from the wound. By the time the pain finally dulled, the Alpha and Kate were long gone.

The walk back to his car was long and he only managed to drag himself to his mattress just as the sun began to rise.

A fever dream, or at least that's the closest thing he could compare it to from one of the times a human friend of his had been sick, haunted his sleep.

It was like watching home movies in his head and he wasn't sure if it was the happiest dream he'd had in a long time or the worst nightmare of his life.

He watched as a tiny version of himself ran into his parents room after a nightmare and both of them shifted just for him so he could hear a low grumbling sound they would make that had him passing out in seconds.

The image blinked out and suddenly the tiny him was surrounded by a pack of rogue wolves that had a vendetta against his family. They'd caught him alone and buried him alive somewhere on the property. His saving grace had been two passing Omegas named Daryl and Melanie.

Everything blinked out again and it flashed to the first time Mrs. McCall had come over for a family dinner with Scott. Just like Scott, the whole pack took a liking to her immediately, especially his mother, Aunt Clare and Melanie, but the highlight of the night was the way Peter was reacting. The entire Hale clan minus him was in complete shock at the way the man acted around Scott's mom. It was like the man gravitated toward her unconsciously. When the McCalls left, Peter got the fifth degree, to which he answered with the motto 'Deny, deny, deny.', from everyone except his father who spent at least half an hour laughing his ass off.

The memories flickered in and out a couple more times but it was the final one that had stuck out the most.

It was the morning the day of the fire. There was nothing special about it and that's probably what made it a hundred times worse. There'd been no big argument or some frenzied preparations for the night's event. Just a simple bye and a promise to be home right after school so that Laura could help cook and Derek could help finish setting up if the adults didn't already. Just another regular morning for the Hale family.

The Hale jerked awake gasping for breath and sweating profusely. He went to wipe the sweat on his arm out of reflex only to wipe another wet substance all over his face. He touched his face and brought it back to see blood smeared across his fingers. He looked to his arm to see the bullet wound still dripping blood and when he checked the mattress a large area of red covered where his arm had been. His first thought was to jump up and wipe the blood off and he managed the first part. And then he promptly fell back on his ass. As if it had been waiting for just that moment, a full body aching washed over him and it took a great deal of his stubbornness to not just lie back down. The werewolf slowly managed to get to his feet and used some bottles of water he kept around to wash all the blood off. He would have tried to wrap the hole in his arm if the damn thing didn't blind him with pain whenever he wrapped it too tightly. Something was different about the flower they used but there were dozens of varieties of aconite, most of which shared many symptoms and meant it was impossible to guess the exact one. Derek was in trouble and the only person he trusted enough to ask for help from was Scott.

The man had planned to be inconspicuous and pick up his little brother during his lunch hour, it would have been easier to call but he'd dumbassed himself and never got around to asking for Scott's cell number, but that plan fell through when he nearly fell down the stairs twice from his vision blurring.

It was going to be a long walk to Beacon Hills High School.

He just managed to arrive just as kids started flooding the halls to get ready to leave. The walk had done nothing for his condition. His skin had turned a sickly pale color, there was a dull throbbing in his head and he was pretty sure the only reason he hadn't died from blood loss was the limited healing the wolfsbane had failed to hinder. He stumbled through the halls for all intents and purposes looking like a walking corpse and bumping into people but they paid him no mind. The hallway finally cleared up and he took a moment to try and focus his senses but the harder he tried, the more scrambled they seemed to get. Luckily, it hadn't affected his short-range and he was able to pick up the scent of one of Scott's teammates close by; the jackass who had issues with his little brother if he remembered right.

"Where's Scott McCall?" he asked as he walked up to the boy, his energy surging at having a lead in sight.

"And why should I tell you?"

Six words and the little piss ant was already grinding at his nerves.

"Because I asked you politely and I only do that once."

The little bastard actually had the gall to laugh and then tried to make a deal with him. He would tell Derek where Scott was if he told him what he was 'selling' the new wolf. The moron actually thought human performance enhancers compared to the basic skills and natural talent werewolfism gave a person. He also advised he stop sampling his 'products' and that he looked wrecked. Realizing he'd just wasted valuable time on the dumb jock that he really didn't have, the man went to walk away. It was pure reflex when the kid grabbed him that the next second he had the jock's face pressed up against the lockers. This could have been wrote off as nothing but when he pulled his hand back from the kid's neck, his claws had come out without his consent and were bloodied from stabbing into his neck. Things definitely weren't looking good for him if he was shifting uncontrollably.

Against his better judgment, Derek ran around the next corner and halfway down the hall before leaning on the wall of an indention that would keep him out of sight. The moment he stopped moving, every part of his body felt like a lead weight had dropped onto it. Pure, bullheaded stubbornness was the only thing keeping his knees from buckling. Deciding it was worth another shot since moving wasn't really an option for a bit, the raven haired man closed his eyes and expanded his senses. It was still somewhat scrambled but he was at least getting bits and pieces of what was going on around him; teachers finishing up their last bit of work, kids fiddling with their cellphones and lockers but still no Scott. Eventually his ears twitched at the sound of some girl talking about a Scott and actually sighed in relief when he heard Allison answer her. Things were finally looking up as it seemed his little brother was supposed to go over and study at the Hunter heiress's house. Guess he wouldn't need Scott to come up with an excuse to visit. He listened as the two girls talked about Allison giving his little brother a 'taste' and made a mental note to torment the boy as much as he could when he wasn't dying. He'd just finished hearing when they were going to meet up when the final bell, one such noise maker being directly above his head, went off and it felt like someone had taken a jackhammer to his brain. He wasn't sure how but it seemed they had only gotten more painful since he'd been in school.

He walked as fast as he could, which still felt like a snail's pace, out into the parking lot and for the first time was relieved when he saw Stiles just climbing into his jeep. In his excitement, the wolf-man pushed himself again but finally went over his limit. He collapsed seconds after halting the blurry powder blue beast he called a vehicle. His vision was completely gone for a moment but the buzzing in his chest told him Scott was closing in.

"Derek, what are you doing here?!" the cub whisper-screamed as he bent down beside him.

"I was shot…"

"He's not looking so good, dude," Stiles pointed out.

A wave of fear blasted off his little brother.

"Why aren't you healing?!"

"I can't… It was…it was a different kind of bullet," he gasped out as it was quickly getting harder and harder to breathe.

The spaz asked if it was a silver bullet, like the movies ever got anything right, and the werewolf called him an idiot but it didn't have nearly as much bite as he would have liked.

Something suddenly clicked in the young McCall's mind.

"Wait, wait! That's what she meant when she said you had forty-eight hours!"

Saying it out loud made his heart feeling like it was being crushed. His brother was dying. Derek was dying and he had no idea what he was supposed to do. The cub was dragged from his thoughts by the sight his big brother convulsing like he'd just been electrocuted. When the shaking stopped, Derek's eye opened but they were flashing back and forth rapidly between their regular strange green to the white-blue of his wolf. Without a second thought, he ordered Stiles to get the passenger door and helped the older male into the seat.

"I need you to find out what kind of bullet they used…"

Okay, there was a plan. Plans were good but there was one small problem with this one.

"How the hell am I supposed to do that?"

"Because she's an Argent. She's with them."

Great, another lead Hunter to worry about on top of Mr. Argent and his Merry Men; catching a break really wasn't in the universal cards from them.

After promising to find it as quickly as possible, he told Stiles to get Derek out of there before they drew more attention than they already had. A final 'I hate you for this so much!' from his best friend and they were gone. He twisted around about to take off for the bike rack and nearly crashed right into Allison.

"Hey, what was Derek doing here?" she asked, her tone light and innocent.

"Oh uh…he uh...wasn't feeling to good and asked if he could bum a ride to get check out. Anyways, we're still studying together, right? So I'll meet you back at your place?"

After she confirmed it, he gave a quick kiss on the cheek and sprinted for his bike. He'd just unhooked his main mode of transportation when he noticed Jackson glaring suspiciously right at him. The lacrosse star had that look people get when they'd just connect something together and that could only mean one thing. Jackson knew something really was off with him and it had to do with Derek. The brunette growled in frustration at the shit storm his life had become before taking off for Allison's. The whole ride he tried to think of some way to find a single bullet in her giant house but came up with absolutely nothing. Werewolf speed shortened the trip considerably and had him skidding to a halt just as his angel pulled into the drive. She of course, being a person with at least an average abilities of observation, asked how he could possibly get to her home at the exact same time as her on a bike. The teen tried to play it off with the excuse of taking a really good shortcut and she seemed to accept it at least a little but still asked what was going on with his bizarre behavior throughout the day.

"I'm just…stressing about classes."

And the fact that he'd been turned into a monster without his consent and he was having trouble controlling himself. And an Alpha who wanted to kill people and have him as his slaughter buddy. And her dad who more than likely wanted to hunt him down and shoot him. It really was a surprise he wasn't a drooling mess yet.

"I'm not doing as good this year."

Allison good naturedly corrected his grammar and he managed to make a joke about how that was exactly why he needed her help. A minute later, his angel was walking through the door but he was stuck at the doorframe. People often used the phrase 'walking into the lions' den', well he now knew _exactly_ what that meant. His instincts were screaming and his wolf begged him to run the other way. This was Hunter territory and he was about to trespass. The only reason he didn't give in was Allison's reassurance that no one would be home for hours. A deep breathe to calm his nerves and Scott McCall enter the Argent's home. The girl started her way up the stairs and he most definitely did not get hypnotized by the way Allison's behind was bouncing the whole time. Before long they were entering her room and the first thing he noticed was all the still packed boxes. He must have been obvious in his staring as she jokingly told him she was still unpacking. When he pointed out that her family had been there for over a month, she just smiled and told him she was taking her time.

Scott moved to the bed and laid down his backpack before taking off his jacket. He started to tell her they should probably start with History, one of his weakest classes, when Allison turned him around and started kissing him. Or they could do that. She started slowly pushing him back onto the bed never breaking contact with his lips. No, he needed to be studying and looking for the bullet, not necessarily in that order. Soon they were laid back completely, his angel on top of him and his roaming over her body. What were they supposed to be doing again? His heart began pounding in his ears and a familiar itch started at the tips of his fingers. With a jolt, he realized his claws had come out and quickly hid the hand under the covers. The werewolf cursed internally as Allison looked at him as if she'd done something wrong. The feeling became worse when she weakly asked if something _was_ wrong and he knew had to fix this.

"Nothing! I just- I-I don't want to make you feel like you have to do something you don't wanna do."

"I'm not doing anything I don't wanna do," she said with a wide smile.

Dear lord, that's not something a girl should say to a teenage boy.

"Are you?"

Did she seriously just ask that?

"Seriously asking me that question?"

His phone started going off not long after they began making out again. She pulled back and asked if he was going to answer but there wasn't much blood left in the top of his body so he wrote it off that it was probably Stiles and that it would go to voicemail eventually. The only thought running through his mind as their lips started to dance again was that it should seriously be illegal to have this much power over someone. Allison could probably tell him to run out in front of a bus and he'd do it if there was a promise of more of this. He felt her weight shifting and cracked an eye open to see her sneaking her hand for his phone. On reflex alone, he stopped her with the hand that had unconsciously shifted. Scott had thought he'd just messed up big time but to his surprise and relief, it had somehow gone back to normal.

It was obvious the moment was over so the boy decided to see what Stiles had wanted. It was a text asking whether or not he'd found the bullet yet and he cursed for getting distracted no matter how much he really, really enjoyed it. A quick reply that he needed more time and he was shutting off the device before Allison got suspicious. He was shoving the phone into his pocket when his eyes landed on a pictured frame laid in a box beside the bed. Scott would have just overlooked it but the woman in the photo standing next to Mr. Argent was practically calling him. A nagging sense of familiarity filled him as he lifted the picture and he swiftly turned to Allison.

"Who is this?"

"That's my dad's sister Kate except she's more like _my_ sister. She got here last night…and why do you have that look on your face?"

The look she was describing was complete shock as he stared at Kate. _His and Derek's _Kate. How had he never made the connection? Argent couldn't be a very common name but it had never clicked in his mind. She had changed so much over the years but not in good ways. She was still stunningly beautiful but it wasn't the chaotic beauty he remembered and her smile seemed almost forced, not the bright mischievous grin that used to accompany her laughter. He had to make sure this was really her.

"Did she- Did she every live around here? A couple years back I mean."

"Yeah, actually. How do you know that? Have you met her before?" Allison asked, her tone light with confusion.

"Does…the nickname 'Puppy' mean anything to you?" Scott questioned hesitantly.

It had been years since he'd used the affectionate name Kate had dubbed him their first meeting but it seemed to register with his girl, although he wasn't expecting the look of pure glee on her face.

"Oh. My. God! You're Puppy?! Kate used to tell me all kinds of stuff about you! Like the time you dressed up as an actual puppy on Halloween just for her! She still carries the picture around in her wallet! She is gonna flip when I tell her you're here!"

Allison went to grab her phone but he quickly snatched up the cell before she could reach it. When she asked what he was doing, after trying to crawl over him to get it which he thoroughly enjoyed, a conspiratory smile spread across his face.

"Have you ever surprised Kate before?"

His angel quickly caught onto his plan and immediately agreed with him.

They had decided that they should probably start studying soon but Scott found more treasures where he found the picture frame. Anyone else would have accused him of wanting to avoid school work as much as possible and on some level that was probably true. What other people didn't know was that the werewolf wanted to know anything and everything there was to know about Allison Argent. Apparently she had gone through a bunch of different hobbies over the year, all of which she vehemently denied being any good at. Her photographs had 'bad lighting' and the framing was 'off' and she wouldn't even let him look at her vanilla folder labeled 'Poetry'. He finally just asked what she thought she was good at and she seemed to become very self-conscious. After making him promise not to laugh, she grabbed his hand and began guiding him through her large home. They eventually ended up in the garage and she began telling him whatever it was she was good at his angel was nationally ranked as a kid, which Scott found amazing. That is until she had a bow pointed right at him. For a moment, he thought she'd found out he was a werewolf and was about to put an arrow through his heart. He flipped out and nearly shifted but stopped when Allison pointed out the obvious by reminding him that an arrow was necessary for the bow to be dangerous.

"So that's what you're good at… Archery."

Did Hunters just naturally gravitate towards activities that helped them deal with werewolves? Kate had taken him to a gun range once when Derek had family stuff to do and she'd been more than amazing at that as well. An amazing memory as a child but a slightly, terrifying one now that he knew what she learned it for.

"You said you wouldn't laugh."

"Trust me. I'm not laughing…"

And then he noticed the wall cage filled with guns and he really wasn't laughing.

0-0-0-0-0

Kate hated grocery shopping. It was so damn tedious and too much work for a woman who basically moved to a different city every other month and lived off take-out. But this particular trip had a purpose. Her lovely but frightening sister-in-law promised to make her favorite chicken stir fry. Only one person in the world made better chicken stir fry than Victoria Argent but she didn't allow herself to think about her.

"Who's bike is that?" she wondered aloud to her brother in the passenger seat as they pulled up to the house.

The look of annoyed recognition on Chris's face said it all. She really needed to teach Allison the fine art of hiding the evidence that your boyfriend is over. But this did present an opportunity to check out a certain boy's competition for her niece's affection. That was another plus to being back in Beacon Hills; one of her most favorite people in the world lived there. The Huntress would have tried to pay him a visit today but most of it had been spent getting some much needed sleep, getting a rundown of what was going on in the small town and grocery shopping. The minute the car stopped, her brother slid out of the car and headed for the house like a dad on a mission, totally eye roll worthy. She popped the trunk and headed to start taking their haul in when she realized something. Her brother had just left her to do all the work. That was a big no-no for this chick.

"Hey, Chris! Get your ass out of the fifties and come help me!"

"Be right there!" he called.

Kate knew with men that could mean anything so she stood there waiting with her arms crossed and her hip cocked to the side in the universal sign that a man had just done something he shouldn't have. She smirked in triumph when he came out, saw her stance and, just for a miniscule second, looked completely scared of his hundred and forty-five pound baby sister. "So I take it the BF's here?" This seemed to bring him back from his world of fear as his eyes narrowed slightly and he gave a caveman grunt. Not long after, Allison came running up to her with the brightest smile she'd ever seen. This boy must have been really something to make her niece like this, moments after getting caught by her father. Her Puppy was gonna need to bring his A-game.

"I have a surprise for you!"

She rolled her eyes in amusement as Allison was practically buzzing with excitement.

"Well? What is it?!"

"You can come out now," her niece called out over her shoulder.

Kate Argent, Huntress extraordinaire and all around badass, dropped the bag she was holding in shock when the boy walked out.

**ASDFASDFASDF**

**And done. Thank you for your patronage and tell me what you thought.**

**IMPORTANT NOTICE: So I've kind of been updating sporadically recently but I've finally found a way to do things. My job is about to really pick up and I'm gonna be working some Saturdays so here's how things are going to work. I will be trying update every Monday, if that doesn't work out then expect it on Friday. I am refusing to let myself go two weeks without updating.**


	13. Magic Bullet Part 2

**And so it begins!**

**Shout out to the nice people who reviewed, favorited, and subscribed. You guys are awesome!**

**DISCLAIMER: We all know the truth… I can never be that awesome…**

**ASDFASDFASDF**

Christopher Nikolai Argent had seen many things in his life.

He had seen his father put down a stray dog who'd become rabid after a bite from a passing colony of bats.

He'd seen a female Alpha who would murder parents and spirit away their children to join her pack.

He watched as one of the best Hunters he knew, a man he'd known since he was a child, shifted under the light of the full moon and had been forced to put him down.

But none of that prepared him for his baby sister's high pitched _girly_ scream and her attempt to tackle Scott McCall that followed.

Now, the male Argent knew that he probably didn't know his little sister as well as an older brother should. The whole being born eleven years apart played a major part in that. Their mother passed not long after Kate's birth and was raised in a predominately male Hunter environment so it wasn't surprising that she'd turned into a tomboy. While other girls played with dolls and dress-up, Kate wanted to watch football with him and go to the local shooting range with Gerard. By the time he was moving out at eighteen, she was the only seven year old he knew that could field strip and clean every gun in the house. He tried to visit during the holidays but that wasn't always possible with him taking over the family business of selling arms to law enforcements across the US. After he started dating his future wife it only got increasingly more difficult. He did make it back for her tenth birthday though. That was the day, after hours of arguing the fact that she was too young, his father decided to tell about the real family business. Besides the initial freak out from seeing the werewolf his father had captured to prove their existence, the only real girly moments he saw were with Allison.

This squealing like a teenager and touchy-feely behavior with someone not his daughter was honestly starting to freak him out.

"Kate, is there something I need to know?" Chris asked, his tone underlined with more of a demand than a question.

When she turned a blinding smile towards him, his knees nearly buckled from underneath him. The look of unbridled joy in her eyes was something he thought was reserved exclusively for Allison and even then it had been watered down the past few years.

"This, my dear older brother, is Scott McCall! My not-so-little-anymore buddy from the last time I lived here with the Old Man!"

That was all he got from the grown woman as she immediately went back to gushing over the boy, whose grin was just as wide as hers. For the first time he could remember, a teenage boy was grating on his father and older brother nerves. Deciding to end the 'love fest' before Kate started planning a wedding, Chris pointed out that the cold groceries were going to start melting soon if they didn't hurry. His sister attempted to get out of working on the grounds of getting reacquainted with her 'Puppy' but immediately got to work when Scott untangled himself from her and start grabbing bags from the back. This kid was going to give him a severe twitch before he left for the night if he kept messing with his worldly views like this. It was nightfall before Scott was finally handing the last bag to Kate. The boy's phone beeped and, if the Argent was mistaken, a look of worry flashed in his eyes for a moment before fading. When Allison came back out, he decided, for once, he would be _that_ dad.

When Scott started talking about studying again, Chris pushed that his daughter would probably do better working on her own.

When Scott asked if he'd see her later, Chris emphasized that it would be at school the next day and no time before.

And when Allison moved towards the boy as he was leaving, more than likely to do something no father wants to see his teenage daughter do, Chris halted it immediately and pointedly separated the two; much to Allison's annoyance if the blank look of irritation she inherited from her mother meant anything.

"Oh come on, Chris, really? They were making out in the garage, not shooting amateur porn!" she told him off, quite loudly he might add, as she jumped onto Scott's back.

What he wouldn't give for a less brazen little sister and by the red bleeding into the teenager's cheeks, the McCall boy did to.

"Besides, I'm not letting this boy out of my sight for as long as possible, so to the living room, Puppy! You're staying for dinner and no arguing from either of you!"

Though neither of them noticed it, both males simultaneously sighed in defeat knowing it was impossible for Kate Argent not to get her way.

Chris did see one upside to the situation though. It gave him a chance to get to know the young man who'd stolen his daughter's heart and when he eventually 'found' a reason, he'd split the two up in a second.

Even with Kate and Allison at table with him, for Scott, awkward was the best way to describe the dinner he was trying to get through with the Argents. It wasn't so bad as Kate seemed to acting like her old self but the no talking thing was starting to make him twitch. Finally, Mrs. Argent broke the silence, even if it was a simple a question as asking if he wanted anything besides water to drink. The werewolf kind of freaked when Allison's dad started offering him beer and tequila but his angel was quick to try and stop that line of questioning. If only it had worked completely.

"You don't drink, Scott?" the man asked with honest curiosity, which wasn't completely unfounded as they'd only been there a couple days and his daughter had gone to a party that eventually got busted for underage drinking.

"I'm not old enough."

"That doesn't seem to stop many teenagers," Mrs. Argent added.

"No, but it should. Besides, I swore off that stuff for life when I was ten thanks to Kate."

The woman across from him seemed to be looking everywhere and anywhere but her family as they all gawked at her but eventually she broke down. She never really could handle people staring at her unless it was on her terms.

"Okay…so I may have ganked some of the Old Man's stash and may have accidently left it out but it only happened once!"

"Twice."

"Shut. Up!"

The look she was sending him promised payback of the highest order which made him smile all the more. Just like old times.

"Can we please move on from my 'wild' teenage years mistakes and wipe that smug look off your face Allison Marie Argent or I'll tell our friend here about a certain birthmark and it's currently undisclosed location."

Scott watched as Allison's face turned a deep, cherry red and his teenage boy mind started wandering to places it really shouldn't in the presence of her parents.

The conversation somehow ended up on lacrosse which had him red faced as Kate took a minute or two to brag about him but then raged when she found out that it was just his first year on First Line. In an imaginary world somewhere, Bobby Finstock was going through unspeakable, bloody horrors at the hands of Kate Argent. Allison continued with the bragging, unbelievably making him redder, about the first game that settled her aunt down a bit and left her with a smug grin of pride. That is until Mr. Argent cut in and shot down everything Allison thought was amazing. His ears pricked as his angel's heartbeat started to pick up and literally felt the hurt Allison was feeling at her father's disapproval of him. Without a second thought, Scott took ahold of his girl's hand while the other went to his necklace unconsciously out of nervousness. This was either going to end really good or really, really bad.

"You know on second thought…um…I think I'll take that shot of tequila."

The room went as quiet as a silent movie as everyone just stared at him but it was completely worth it as Allison smiled broadly at him and Kate started laughing with Mr. and Mrs. Argent. The overwhelming tension just seemed to evaporate from the room as Mr. Argent asked humorously if he was kidding. Kate teased openly that she'd be willing to sneak him one if he was serious. His phone vibrated not long after they finished diner and he knew it had to be Stiles so he excused himself and headed for the part of the house farthest away from everyone. His best friend picked up on the first ring.

"What am I supposed to do with him?" Stiles asked right away.

"Hello to you too, Stiles," Scott answered back in Stiles-esque fashion.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Hi. How are you? Is your mom doing okay? Is the weather nice there? Now what the hell am I supposed to do with the half-dead werewolf bleeding all over my car?! Also, you should know I am very proud of the way you just answered me."

"I don't know! Take him somewhere! Anywhere!" he whisper-screamed, beyond nervous with his buddy's use of the D word.

"And by the way he's starting to smell…."

"Like what?"

"Like death!"

Scott was sure his heart literally stopped for a moment but seemed to be exactly what he needed as he came up with a place to hide Derek. He immediately told his friend to take the man to the animal clinic and about the key the Doc kept hidden behind the dumpster. When Stiles asked about his boss, he just told him it was late and he'd probably already gone home. There was a sigh over the line until he heard Derek asking if he'd found the bullet yet. The newer wolf complained about finding one bullet in the Wal-Mart for guns that was the Argent home to mask the fact that he hadn't actually had the chance to look.

"Look, if you don't find that bullet…I'm dead."

"Don't say shit like that! I'll find this stupid bullet and you'll be fine, okay?"

"Okay but hurry up. This_ thing _you call a friend is raking on my last nerve."

The teen rolled his eyes as the phone went dead. Stiles did have that effect on some people sometimes. Snapping out that line of thought, Scott put away his phone and headed for the garage where all the weapons were stored. What he didn't count on was an alarm going off as soon as he opened the door. A cough behind him made him jump and he twisted around to see Kate leaning against a door frame, looking more like a predator than he ever did.

"Someone looks like a little lost puppy."

"Um…just looking for the bathroom."

"Really, Scottie?"

For a moment, Scott actually thought about coming clean and just asking Kate for the bullet. She would never knowingly shoot Derek, he figured she had to be the Argent the older wolf was talking about, and would want to help. But there was one thing stopping him. While he trusted Kate with his life, he wasn't completely sure about Mr. Argent; an arrow in the arm will do that to a person. If he told Kate and they had to go to Allison's dad for help, there was no telling how that would go down. He must have been quiet for too long as Kate gave him this sort of I-know-you're-up-to-something look before pointing to a guest room and telling him there was a bathroom attached there. A quick 'thank you' and the werewolf was walking down the hall, feeling Kate's hawk eyes on him the whole way.

Ironically, when he entered the room, he actually had to use the bathroom and was about to go in when he smelled something that was undeniably Kate. His eyes zeroed in on the bag that was the source and carefully closed the door. The closer he got to the bag, the more agitated his inner wolf got and when Scott actually opened it, he could picture its lips curling back as if threatened. There was definitely something in the tote a werewolf wouldn't like. There was strangely an old, wooden box packed in with a few sparse pieces of clothing. When he opened it, row upon row of bullets lined the thing but something in particular stuck out. A smaller box with unknown flower and leaf symbols. As soon as he popped the top, he knew he'd found the right one. Derek had said it would be a high-powered rifle shell and these looked almost exactly like the ones he'd seen years ago with Kate. Plus his big brother had said it wasn't a normal bullet, these were kept separate from the rest of the mass produced clones and one was missing. He slowly pulled one out and had to physically stop himself from throwing it across the room to get away from it. Whatever 'different kind of bullet' this was, it was forcing his wolf to the surface and his eyes to glow with its mere presence. There was an inscription across the top of the container and lucky for him, there was a translation app on his phone thanks to Stiles. But, of course, he sent it to said spaz when he couldn't make heads or tails of it. His reply wasn't good news. He quickly stuffed it into his back pocket and put everything back the way it was. Kate always knew when someone had messed with her things unless they were put back in just the right way.

Task finally accomplished Scott head back for the dining room where everyone was still sitting.

"Hey um I should get going… Um thank for the dinner, Mrs. Argent."

"Oh no, no. You have to stay for dessert. Besides, you need to tell me what's changed about Beacon Hills while I was gone."

"Really, Kate, I need to go. You know how my mom gets-"

"Victoria made homemade apple piiiiieeee," Kate sang, victory already in her voice.

The chair nearly tipped over when he slid into the seat.

"I'm sure one slice would be fine!"

Everyone laughed and he cursed his stomach while Kate told Allison about his greatest human weakness.

"So Allison was just telling us you work for a veterinarian," Mrs. Argent started once her brief laughter was under control.

"I told them you were the one that put the cast on the dog I hit. Oh! I also have a picture I took from the other day."

He attempted to stop Allison from handing her phone over to her aunt but she was too fast. The boy sighed in defeat as Kate just got handed some grade A blackmail material in the form of him, passed out with Thor the great dane sleeping on top of him during work. By the devilish smile that crossed the older woman's face, she knew it too. Luckily, Mr. Argent saved him from embarrassment for the moment.

"What does your boss think of the animal attacks? Any theories?"

Scott was about to say whatever one else was saying when Allison interrupted.

"I don't know about his boss but Scott said it had to be a bear. He dissected the whole thing right at the lunch table. It was amazing!"

By the time Allison finished the story, her parents actually looked impressed while she and Kate looked like they knew something no one else did.

"That's a rather interesting set of knowledge you have, Scott. Does the clinic here have a lot of run ins with those sort of animals?" Mr. Argent asked as if he was baiting something.

"No, sir. Animals have always just kind of my thing. We get mostly cats and dogs, nothing quite that vicious."

A rather haunting story of a rabid dog followed that Scott was sure wasn't entirely about a dog. Tension was thick in the room again, so Mrs. Argent took pity on everyone and ended dessert not long after. Years of it being just him and his mom kicked in and he offered to help clean up while Allison went to get his bag from her room. By the time his angel was coming down the stairs, he was waiting at the bottom. The minute he had his bag in hand, she began apologizing for 'the worst, most horribly, awkward dinner in the history of horribly, awkward dinners'. He disagreed and told her about the dinner his parents told him they were getting divorced but that it was a close second which made her smile. She moved in to give him a goodbye kiss but his gaze wandered just for a moment to see Mr. Argent staring right at them.

"You're dad's watching."

"Goooood."

From the way his daughter was kissing him, Scott knew he'd just made the top of his Kill List and he didn't even know he was a werewolf yet.

He was just about to finally leave when Kate called out to him. Something seemed to be wrong as she was giving him her patented 'Kate Stare Down'. She continued to stare him down, her way of softening people up, before bluntly asking what he'd taken from her bag. On the outside, Scott played the part of the confused teenager but internally, he was freaking the hell out. Kate had found him out and he'd been so careful to put everything back exactly as it was; things only got worse when Mr. Argent walked over, obviously noticing something was wrong. She explained the whole story to her brother and then he got what he now realized was the patented 'Argent Stare Down' from both of the adults. Allison tried to say something but Kate wasn't one for letting others sway her opinion and silenced her.

"Scott, you know I love you. You happen to be one of my favorite people in the world but right now, everything is pointing at you and you have yet to answer the question. So, I'll ask again. What did you take?"

"Nothing. I swear."

"Then you won't mind emptying out your pockets? You know, just to prove me wrong?"

"I'll prove you wrong," Allison decided to interrupt. "Scott didn't go through your bag. I did."

"You?" Kate asked curiously, though she seemed relieved that there was a chance it wasn't him.

"Yeah, me."

Scott swore his mind short circuited when he saw what his angel pulled out of her dress. He was a teenage boy but he hadn't even thought of talking to Allison about that particular activity yet. That's not to say he wasn't about to howl from a feeling he couldn't completely explain but the werewolf couldn't exactly do that in front of two Hunters and someone who didn't even know of the supernatural to his knowledge. Mr. Argent's face was completely blank as he left the room and Kate followed soon after but not before apologizing and giving him this huge, excited grin and two thumbs up when Allison looked away for a moment. One last kiss from Allison and he was out the door. There wasn't enough money in the world to wipe the smile off his face when he finally left the Argent's property.

The McCall pedaled double time to the clinic and made it in record time. He heard the muffled voices of Derek and Stiles, which he found strange as he never had trouble hearing people outside from in the clinic. He dropped his bike and ran inside, calling out to his brother and friend. Stiles answered first from the room the Doc did surgery in. What he walked into could only be described as a nightmare come to life. A deathly, pale Derek was bent over with a tourniquet around his upper arm and just below it, Stiles was holding an electrical saw, looking like he was about to cut off his brother's arm.

"What the HELL are you doing?!"

"Oh, you just prevented a lifetime of nightmares, my friend!" the spaz breathed out in relief.

"Did you get it?" Derek gasped as he struggled to keep himself up right.

Scott fumbled with his pocket for a second until his fingers wrapped around the metal and he handed it over. Stiles asked what he was going to do with it and Derek started to say something before his eyes rolled back and he collapsed to the floor. While Stiles went to check on him, Scott raced after the bullet and just missed it as it rolled into a grate. He tried his hardest to reach the damn thing but his hand was too big. It didn't help that Stiles was giving very much unneeded commentary on Derek's status. He was cursing himself for not having longer finger when an idea hit him. Closing his eye, the werewolf went back to earlier that afternoon when he and Allison were on her bed. A familiar itch started and seconds later, his claws were out. He trapped the bullet between them easily and pulled it out. He was just standing up when he heard Stiles praying that Derek wouldn't kill him and actually punched him in the face. Stiles clutched at his hand in pain but it had the desired effect as Derek snapped awake and reached for the bullet. The two helped the man to his feet and he immediately got to work. He bit the end off and tapped out something that was making his nose burn before setting it on fire. Sparks and blue smoke rose as Derek scrapped the stuff into his hand. He took a deep breath before slamming his hand over the wound and digging the stuff in with his finger. A roar of pain follow and his brother collapsed the floor again where he writhed, twitched and roared some more. The next instant, all the blood and darkened veins moved to the wound before closing completely.

"That. Was. Awesome! Yes!" Stiles exclaimed, probably more from the sight of werewolf healing than Derek being okay.

"Are you okay?"

Normally, Derek would have a sarcastic comment to such a question but the very real, very powerful look of fear in his little brother's eyes stopped him in his tracks.

"I'm good," he said simply and the fear slowly ebbed away.

"Good. Cause you are never allowed to do that again or I'll kill you myself!"

Derek just laughed quietly and shook his head.

"Seriously though… Maybe… Maybe we should ask Kate and the Hunters for help? Or at least get them to stop shooting at us?"

The wolf-man's head snapped to his little brother and his light hearted moment disappeared.

"You think we can trust the Hunters?!"

"Well I thought we could make a truce or something… We help them stop the Alpha and promise to not hurt anyone and they leave us alone."

And this was why he worried about his little brother. Scott wanted to see the good in everyone, to trust them even when the good didn't even exist anymore. But he needed to learn that Hunters could never be trusted, not even his precious Allison. Hardening his heart for the pain he was about to cause, Derek pulled some cash out of his wallet and tossed it to the idiot best friend to clean his seats with and grabbed the younger wolf by the scruff of his shirt and dragged him outside.

"Where are we going?" Scott asked when he finally got out of his grip.

"Somewhere where I can show you exactly what your belief in the Hunters does."

The run to his old home was quiet except for the minute rustling of leaves underfoot. As soon as his car was in sight, he ordered Scott to get in while he grabbed a new shirt. The younger wolf tried to ask where they were going again when climbed into the driver's seat but he stayed silent. Scott fidgeted in the passenger seat the whole ride to the hospital. Without a word, he parked and made his way into Long Term Care center of Mrs. McCall's work, his brother following quietly behind him. Just before they reached the room, he hesitated. If he was right, Scott's mom had told him Peter died with the rest of the family wanting to save him the horror of the truth. But this wasn't about saving Scott from the pain; this was about keeping him alive. Derek, with a heavy heart, pushed Scott into the room.

"Peter!"

The older werewolf gave a quick scan to make sure no one had heard them before entering the room. He found the cub kneeling before his uncle, a look of pain etched into his features no doubt from seeing the scarred half of his face. His little brother's voice cracked as he tried to explain that his mom told him Peter hadn't managed to survive.

"He is…he is alive, right?" Scott managed croak out while gingerly touching Peter's marred face.

"Barely. We may be supernatural, Scott, but we're not immortal. Werewolf healing has its limits."

"Did the Hunters do this…"

"Yes. They say they go by The Code, a set of rules that dictates that they will only kill werewolves who are of age and only with absolute proof that they've spilt human blood. But this is what they do. They kill without discrimination and have little care for anything else. The twins and Aunt Clare? They were perfectly, ordinary humans but were executed just like the rest because they were part of our family… That's what Hunters do. That's what Kate _does_ and that's what Allison will _do_."

Scott looked like he was about to say something but Peter's nurse walked in and ordered them to leave with her usual scathing tone.

Hours after he'd dropped off a completely mute Scott, the wolf-man received a text from said boy, whose number had somehow been programmed into his phone, to meet him at the park. Thinking something had happened, Derek dropped everything and broken multiple speed limits to Scott's location. The closer he got the louder the familiar twang of a basketball meeting concrete and found the boy bouncing the ball at the courts in complete darkness. Even through the pitch-black, he could see the small, twitchy movements a normal person would miss.

"What happened? Did the Alpha come by?

"What? No! No! I just thought we could play around a bit. You know something away from all the crazy shit that's been going on."

"You text me at two in the morning…to play basketball?"

"Look, I couldn't sleep and I figured you probably didn't still have your lacrosse stuff so I brought this. Besides, it's not _just_ basketball," the boy countered, casually spinning the ball on his finger and flashing his eyes gold with a lopsided smirk. "Where's the fun in that?"

Despite the well played bravado, Derek knew what was happening. This was the younger supernatural's way of dealing with the shit storm he'd forced to fall on him. So he slowly smirked back as his annoyance faded and flashed his white blue eyes. Scott McCall was his little brother and if this was what he needed then he'd go with it.

"Alright, Punk, let's see what you got!"

**ASDFASDFASDF**

**So ends another chapter. Sorry for the delay. A bit of real life jumped at me. So just tell me what you think and I'll hopefully see you next chapter.**


	14. The Tell Part 1

**So it looks like I'm late again…(screw what I said last chapter. set deadlines suck) This time though it wasn't just me being slow in starting. This last weekend has been nothing but getting my sister ready to move, her graduating, watching my oldest sister's bull mastiff, and Mother's Day. Pretty busy weekend for me.**

**DISCLAIMER: I own nothing but the plot.**

**ASDFASDFASDF**

To say that Peter Hales' spirits were high was like saying grass was green or the sky was blue. Blatantly obvious and something any moron could tell you. Dear Jennifer nearly had a heart attack when she found him just standing by his window with an easy smile on his scarred face.

Why the state of euphoria someone might ask?

Just the fact that a couple of things had been going his way over the past few weeks.

His number of visitors had increased in that time as now that his protégé was aware of his living status, Scott had stopped by a couple times. If he thought it was nice having the cub be in his presence and not be completely afraid while controlled, then having him unafraid and there by his own will was incredible. A Beta should fear and respect their Alpha, not be mortally terrified of them. It was almost surreal how easy the boy talked to him after those first awkward moments of talking to a 'catatonic' person. He talked about everything that had happened recently since he'd been turned from his frustration about how being a werewolf was messing with his life to the shy way he talked about the Hunter heiress. If circumstances were different, Peter would have been picking at the cub for getting a lady friend before warning him of the dangers of such a relationship with a future Hunter.

He had also found one of the monsters, a Mr. Barry Dunham, that had set his home ablaze. The young man currently worked as a video store clerk where the Alpha could be found perched upon the roof. Either Mr. Dunham was foolish with the money the Hunters had paid him or there was no payment involved and the scruffy man was simply a monster with pyromania but that was neither here nor there. Even better than finding Barry was the fact that he was, at the present moment, working all by his lonesome with only a teenage couple sitting outside, the boy trying to convince his girlfriend to watch _Hoosiers_ instead of something called _The Notebook_. Peter rolled his eyes at the losing battle and decided it was time to strike. Sneaking in was a breeze and the werewolf quickly hid in one of the aisle. Still in high spirits, he decided to end things mercifully quick and slashed Barry's throat as soon as he was off the ladder he was using to fix a broken light. His scream was silent and over quickly as the light left his eyes.

Peter jolted when he heard the jingle of the front door opening and quickly hid.

"Can somebody help me find _The Notebook_?"

The wolf-man saw that coming.

Peter watched with bored interest as the teenager wandered around the store, calling out for an employee that was no longer among the living. Now that he was paying attention, he noticed the lingering scent of Scott on the boy. It was strange thinking his cub was friends with someone so high strung. The Hale could almost swear he saw the stick up the young man's ass. The boy suddenly froze up, no doubt coming across the freshly made corpse. This was proven true when he stumbled backwards into the ladder and accidently ripped the light down with him. The lights flickered for a bit before everything went black, which the werewolf figured he could use to get away undetected. Unfortunately, the boy chose the moment he came out of hiding to turn around and looked him straight in the eyes. Peter could hear the rapid beating of his heart and the gasping breaths of fear, even when younger male ducked into one of the aisles. The boy wasn't a participant in the fire but the older male couldn't exactly let him go and alert the authorities that the attacks were not in fact done by a mountain lion. A push of his shoulder and the shelves fell like dominoes. The boy must have been an athlete of some sort as he was able to throw himself out of the way and only got his legs caught instead of being crushed entirely.

The born wolf stalked over to his prey, the child's heartbeat picking up infinitely more the closer he got. But just as he was about to snap the jock's neck, he paused. Carefully, Peter pulled back the collar of his leather jacket to see what was obviously, to werewolves anyways, deep claw marks in a line on the back of his neck. When he reached to touch one, a glow bloomed from each of the wounds and the Alpha had to hold back the growl at the wolfbane infected stab marks reacting to him. This was an interesting development and he'd always been rather curious by nature; plus Scott more than likely wouldn't appreciate him killing one of his little friend. So he spared the teen for now and, with a roar, burst through one of the front widows.

0-0-0-0-0

Scott and Derek stared down from the roof of _Video 2C_ at the scene of the Alpha's latest victim.

They'd been playing their now weekly game of basketball when Stiles had texted about a possible murder at the video store. The werewolves, of course, dropped everything and took off for the scene. Barely a hundred feet from the place, the scent of the Alpha hit their noses. As to not draw attention, the two had been perched on the higher ground ever since. Not long after they showed up, Stiles and the Sheriff pulled up in a cruiser and Stile's dad took control of the scene.

Much to the growling annoyance of Scott and his inner wolf was the sight of the Sheriff trying to ask Jackson a few simple questions and the asshole blowing up at him like he was some idiot who didn't know his place. The McCall made a promise to stomp him into the ground next time they had practice.

"Oh, whoa! Is that a dead body?"

The sound of his best friend brought him out of his anger and his eyes snapped to the limp figure being rolled out on a stretcher. The Sheriff gave his son the stink eye before making everyone back away from the ambulance.

"Starting to get it?" his big brother asked from behind him.

"I get…that he's killing people but I don't get why? I mean…this-this isn't standard practice, right? We don't go out in the middle of the night murdering everyone, do we?"

"No. We're predators; we don't have to be killers."

"Then why is _he _a killer?"

"That's what we're going to find out."

The younger werewolf jumped up and followed after Derek, careful to step over the weird rings of gravel along the way. There was some 'bad mojo' as Stiles would put it coming off the tiny rocks.

The ride back to the Hale house was quiet, both of them stuck in their own thoughts on what the hell the Alpha was after.

Years of being around the Stilinski men and a vast knowledge of predators helped Scott figure out that the monster that bit him wasn't just randomly killing people. If he was then there would be a lot more deaths and both killings were done while the victims were completely alone. It was waiting for the absolutely perfect time to strike with no witness and therefore no casualties. But what could be the connection between a bus driver and a video store clerk? He needed to see if Stiles could find anything on them.

The alarm on his phone went off just as they stepped in to house and Scott cursed quietly.

"I got to go, Derek. I-"

"No, you don't."

The younger male was stunned for a moment at the finality of his brother's words.

"Uh, yes, I do. Look, I know you said I'm part of his pack or whatever but I have homework. I have to go to parent/teacher conferences tomorrow because I'm failing Chemistry! You know how mom will get when she finds out about that!"

"Well, do you think she'd be more okay with you failing a couple classes or, you know, dying? You have less than a week before the next full moon, Scott. Less than a week and this time if you don't kill with him, he kills you."

"Seriously?!" he shouts in frustration. "Who the hell comes up with this stuff?!"

"It's a rite of passage into his pack."

"Well, you know what else is a rite of passage?! Graduating from high school! An-and you don't have to kill anyone to do it! Look…I want to help, you know that, but I don't even know what I'm doing. You're the one who has years of practice. Why can't you just sniff him out while he's a human?"

"Because his human scent could be completely different! You have a connection to him that I don't and that you can't understand yet but you will. I'm going to teach you everything I know and that includes controlling the link. You controlling the link means he can't call you during the full moon. Control will help us to find him."

This was too much responsibility for a guy who just wanted to get passing grades, hangout with his brother and best friend, go on dates with an amazing girl and play lacrosse. But he couldn't exactly just let the Alpha run around killing people.

"If I help you find the Alpha…you can stop him?"

"Not alone. We're more powerful in numbers. The pack makes the individual more powerful. It's why our pack was able to keep Beacon Hills safe for so long. Other wolves avoided our territory because of our numbers."

"Our?" Scott asked in confusion.

Derek actually smiled at him for that.

"Yes, _our_. I've always considered you and your mom pack, Scott. All of us did."

His usual goofy grin spread across his face and he blushed in embarrassment at the fact that the Hales considered them family just as much as he did.

It was quiet for a bit before Derek decided to break the silence.

"You can go home to do _homework_ but I'm going to teach you something first. Do you remember what happened that first night you were shot in the arm? Right after you were hit you changed back, right?"

Scott nodded.

"Same thing when you were hit by his car?"

He nodded again.

"What's the common denominator?"

The younger male just shrugged when he came up blank. He watched in confused curiousness as his brother took hold of his wrist. The curiousness quickly vanished as a blinding pain started as Derek slowly broke the bones in his hand. The smaller werewolf screamed in pain and cursed loudly as he slowly sunk to the floor. An equally painful healing started as soon as he let go, the shattered bones shifting to realign and stitch back together. An explanation of how pain kept them human followed his grounded out 'What the Hell?!'.

"And you couldn't just tell me that, why?!"

"You know I'm more of a hands-on teacher," Derek answered with a smirk before disappearing upstairs.

0-0-0-0-0

Allison had just finished getting ready for another terrible birthday at school when she found Kate hanging around the door way. Things had been different this visit compared to the last few. Kate seemed more like herself since she'd come to Beacon Hills. She smiled more genuinely, laughed more openly and even convinced her to pull little pranks on her parents like the old days. Suffice to say, the old Kate was back, largely because of a certain Puppy was her belief, and the teenage girl loved it.

"Heeeyyyy! Listen, you know I feel totally horrible about my behavior during the dinner with Scott, right?"

Oh yes, she knew. The women had only apologized at least once a day since that night.

"Oh totally forgotten-"

"No! Not forgotten by me and it's your birthday so let me have it. Call me a horrid bitch or something…"

This was something she had always loved about her aunt. Kate had always treated her more like an equal than someone nearly a decade younger than her.

"You were just being protective," Allison placated. "I also know you didn't like the idea of accusing your Puppy of being a thief."

Her newly returned mischievous smile spread across features.

"This is true but to clear my conscience of guilt…I'm giving you your birthday present early."

Kate held up a little red box she pulled from behind her back. Allison actually gasped when she opened the container to reveal a beautiful gold pendant. It was a warped circular shape with a star to the upper left and an animal that looked sort of like a wolf taking up most of the center. It was gorgeous. She looked to her aunt to see if this was real only to see her smirking.

"Forgiven?"

"Completely! I love it!"

Her aunt started to explain how it was a family heirloom and how she 'hated and loathed all that sentimental crap' which she knew was a complete lie. The older Argent still wore the leather jacket an ex-boyfriend of hers got her from like half a decade or so back and like she had told Scott, Kate still kept a picture of him in her wallet. Then came the interesting part. Apparently the symbol on the pendant meant something to her family but her aunt was tight lipped on the details.

"So you're gonna make me work for it?"

She always did enjoy a challenge.

"Some things are worth the effort," Kate said mysteriously as she helped her put the necklace on.

Allison took a moment to just stare in awe of her present when an incredibly dorky idea hit her and made her laugh.

"Still here you know. Care to clue me in on what's got you blushing and giggling all the sudden?"

The younger Argent felt her face get redder.

"Uh…just…it's kind of lame but people at school are gonna call me and Scott the 'necklace couple'.

The are-you-nuts look the older Argent gave her was kind of expected.

"I know it weird but Scott has a silver one with these strange interconnecting red spirals on it and I think it's lame and cool that we kind of have a couple thing…now… Kate?"

Allison had expected her aunt to start teasing her halfway through her explanation but she seemed to have frozen up at some point. The teen called out to her again and her aunt/'sister' slowly came back to reality.

"Sorry, I just remember that there's someone I have to go see today. Try to have some fun today, okay?"

Kate gave her a quick hug and a kiss on the cheek before walking out of the room. Allison got the strange impression her aunt was a predator about to go hunting.

The teenage Argent made it to school with no big fan fair and when she didn't find Lydia waiting with a bunch of people to sing her happy birthday, something she could totally see her doing, Allison called an early victory. She walked the halls like it was any other day, her new pendant shown proud around her neck. Victory was cut short though when she opened her locker to have a face full of balloons hit her. There was a vain attempt at swatting the air filled menaces back in that followed but was deemed pointless now and looked to a birthday card attached to the inside of her door. Of course it was from Lydia, though she had no clue how the strawberry blonde got into her locker. Something even worse happened seconds after she put the card down.

Scott showed up.

"Is it your birthday?" her boyfriend asked in surprise.

"No! No! Uh...nope! I mean…yes… Please don't tell anybody… I don't even know how Lydia found out."

Was it wrong to ask for a giant hole to open up underneath her and swallow her for a day?

"Why didn't you tell me?" he now asked in confusion.

"Because I didn't want anyone to know! Because…"

Scott was totally going to dump her for this.

"Because…I'm seventeen," she mumbled but he still managed to hear her loud and clear.

"You're seventeen?!"

"That's the reaction I'm trying to avoid."

And now came the questions that made her hate her birthday every year.

"Why? I mean I-I totally get it. Uh…you had to repeat a year because of all the moving, right?"

Allison's eyes widened as she slowly turned to her boyfriend. Without a second thought, she attached her lips to his. This was one of the many reasons the Argent girl loved Scott McCall. How she ever doubted this amazing person she would never know. When she finally pulled away, Scott had that usual grin on his face like he was the lucky one instead of her.

"What was that for?" Scott asked, his voice confused but not unhappy with the unforeseen result.

He really had no idea how amazing his normal self was.

"For, literally, being the first person to ever make that correct assumption."

She went on to tell him about all the hurtful things people asked her throughout the day. As strange as it sounded, Allison was impossibly happy at how angry Scott seemed to be about her having to deal with that all day. He seemed to get this thoughtful look for a bit before asking her the impossible. Her boyfriend asked her to leave school with him. She asked if he was serious about skipping a class with her and was shocked when he said he meant the whole day. She was being asked to skip an entire day of school when she'd never so much as missed a class without an actual reason.

"No, you see it's perfect. If you get caught, they'll go easy on you."

"Well, what if you get caught?"

"Let's…try not to think about that," he replied as he turned her around and pushed her towards the parking lot.

They waited till the halls were completely empty before taking off for her car. Every step they took away from the school made her worry more and more until they reached the car and she asked if this was really such a good idea. Her dad would kill her if he ever found out she had cut school.

"Do you always follow your dad rules?"

The Argent gave it a fair bit of thought and concluded that when it came to Scott McCall, she really didn't. Allison nearly had a panic attack when she realized she had no idea where to go, Scott didn't have a clue either, before just pulling out and driving off. For the next hour or so there was nothing but driving and silence; Scott somehow knowing she needed quiet to calm herself down which was taking extraordinarily longer than usual. She'd always considered herself very adaptive person but this was different. This was her choosing to do something she wasn't used to instead of being forced into it. The only time the silence was broken was when Stiles called Scott's cellphone but he kept his conversation quiet. Suddenly, the boy next to her screamed for her to turn and she jerk the vehicle to the side, her arm flinging out instinctively to keep Scott safe. He looked at her kind of strangely as she awkward drew her arm back. Jesus Christ, she was a dork.

"Sorry, sorry. I just totally 'soccer mom'ed you. I'm sorry."

Scott, being the incredible person he is, just laughed it off.

"It's alright. Just…pick-up my masculinity on the way back."

They started walking along a trail covered in fallen leaves after she found a place to park off the side of the back road. Scott walked with complete ease while she nervously fiddled with her phone, so sure that her dad or mom was just going to pop out at any moment. She looked when felt a pair of eyes on her to see her boyfriend just smiling at her with this knowing look.

"You're still not okay with this, are you?"

Why did she turn into an open book for Scott McCall? Everyone else could barely if ever tell what she was thinking but not him. He was such a jerk.

"I just feel like I need an alibi."

"Well if we get caught, I'll say it was my fault," he answered as if it was the simplest thing in the world.

"You don't need to take the blame for me. It was my choice too."

"Oh, good! Because if we get caught I'm totally gonna blame you!"

She gaped at him a moment before realizing she was joking and decided to play along.

"Oh, really?"

"Hell yeah and they'd believe me. Totally hot girl asks you to skip the day with her, how do you say no?"

Allison didn't know whether to blush from the compliment or smack his in the shoulder for thinking adults would believe him over her. She knew how to play the 'innocent' card.

"So just throw me under the bus, just like that?"

"Throw. Push. Shove. It all depends on your preference."

Though she didn't know it then, her nerves were slowly un-tensing and her usual confidence started to show.

"And what if I…decided to drag you down with me?"

"I'd just yell for help," he answered confidently.

"And what if I did this?" she asked before giving him a quick kiss.

"I'd scream for help."

Then the girl gave him the kind of kiss she liked the most. The kind that made her heart race and wish she didn't have to breathe just so it would last longer.

"I'd beg for mercy…"

Allison let out a breathless laugh. She was in so much trouble when it came to this boy.

0-0-0-0-0

The second the bell for Lunch hour rang, Stiles made for the parking lot at a dead sprint.

Since Scott decided he was going to run away for the day and do mushy-couplely stuff with Allison, the brains of the pair had took it upon himself to check if Lydia remembered anything from the night before; plus it would remind Scott that Derek wasn't the only one that could help. He wasn't even going to attempt with Jackson as he would more than likely bite his head off before he told Stiles anything but he was hopeful with Lydia. It was totally not about checking to see how his dream girl was doing and if there was anything he could do for her. It's bad when someone can't even lie to themselves.

The spaz knew exactly where the Martins residence was. He'd had it memorized since the fourth grade, along with over half the student body of Beacon Hills High but hers was the first. Soon the standard two-story houses of suburbia gave way to the monstrous buildings, he called them mini-mansions, that stuck out like sore thumbs. How their small town attracted so many rich people he would never know. When he pulled up the bleach white house, Stiles took a minute or ten to psych himself up for this. He'd never really had a one-on-one conversation with Lydia Martin. She was always surrounded by people but she was awesome so that was to be expected. Of course, this was assuming there was any talking at all and the beauty didn't just slam the door in his face. Finally mentally prepared for the most challenging task of his life, the twitchy boy hopped out of his jeep and headed for the door.

Stiles' heart raced as he waited for someone to answer the door after he rang the bell. His heart almost exploded when the knob turned but settled quickly when it revealed Lydia's mom, who was currently looking at him strangely.

"Can I help you?"

Crap! Why didn't he think of anything say before he got here? That was universally stupid! But like his motto said: When in doubt, wing it.

"Uh… Hi, Mrs. Martin, you probably don't know me. I'm Stiles, a friend of Lydia's from school…and I was just…coming to check…on…her?"

Mrs. Martin smiled the smile that Lydia had hooked him with in the third grade and never let go, guess he knew where that came from now, and invited him in.

"You're the first one to visit today so I think Lydia will appreciate that but I do have to ask…why where you sitting by the road so long?"

Not seeing that question coming, the spaz became tongue tied, stumbling over every word, before sighing in defeat.

"The truth is I wanted to come make sure Lydia was okay but also didn't want to upset her or make her mad…"

"Well, that's very sweet of you, Stiles, but we both know that girl is made of tougher stuff than that," the woman said hitting him with that smile again.

The teen made a note that Martin women were very dangerous creatures to Stilinskis.

One walk up a winding staircase and they were at a door with 'Lydia' written on it with fancy swooping letters. Mrs. Martin gave a few quick knocks before walking in.

"Honey, there's a Stiles here to see you."

"What the hell is a Stiles?"

Lydia's mother let out an embarrassed laugh before explaining to him that she'd taken something to ease her nerves. If only the woman knew the truth but it did explain why Lydia looked like she just fell out of bed. Stiles knew she wouldn't consciously let herself look like that. Hell, he always imagined she just kind of rolled out of bed perfectly dressed and ready for the day. Mrs. Martin left them alone and things got really quiet until the strawberry blonde asked why he was there in a pose he'd only seen in his dreams. He fiddled with his fingers, a ruse to stop from wiping his now sweaty palms, and telling her he was just coming to check on her. She seemed to accept that with disinterest and somehow or another she made smacking her tongue like she had cottonmouth attractive. Then she asked why and patted the spot next to her. Internally, the ADHD poster child was doing backflips that Lydia Martin wanted _him_ to sit next to her. On _her_ bed no less! It had to be the drugs or maybe he was the one on drugs by accident and this was all just a really, really good hallucination. Embolden by her consent, Stiles took a seat next to her and explained that he was worried when she didn't show up for school before actually asking if she was okay. To his shock, she leaned right up into his face to tell him she felt fantastic, much to the strain of his heart. Was it odd that he noticed how amazing her breath smelt despite his serious reason for being there? He let his eyes wander around the room for fear of doing something he shouldn't when his eyes landed on a pill bottle sitting between the legs of a stuffed giraffe. Curious as to what Lydia might have taken, he grabbed the bottle to see it was a rather high-powered painkiller; the good kind that dentists prescribe after like root canals and things like that. His impulsiveness decided to kick in at that moment, forcing him to have at least a little fun at the beauty's expense.

"Bet you can't say…'I saw Suzy sitting in a shoe shine shop.' ten times fast."

She got that determined look in her eyes that he loved so much but, as he thought, failed miserably in her attempts. Things changed quickly when Lydia slowly turned away from him with this faraway look of terror in her eyes.

"I saw…"

Stiles went into serious mode as the girl seemed to be going back to the night before.

"Wait, what? Lydia, what did you see?"

"Something…"

"Something…like a mountain lion?"

"A mountain lion…," she answered wistfully, nodding slightly.

"Are you sure you saw a mountain lion or are you just saying that because that's what the police told you?"

"A mountain lion…"

Stiles grabbed the stuffed giraffe from her bedside table and ask her what it was.

"A mountain lion…"

And secret genius Lydia Martin had left the building. He couldn't help but think of how those pills basically made her drunk but then his mind went completely blank; the reason being a certain girl's head falling right into his lap. Stiles had had dreams like this before but never thought it was possible in real life. 'Little Stiles' agreed with him wholeheartedly. Though he loathed the idea, the spaz slowly lifted Lydia's head and laid her back on her pillow. Why did his mom and dad raise him to be such a damn gentleman?! He quickly stood up and started walking around in the hopes that blood would start following throughout his entire body instead of certain specific ones. Once his life fluid was circulating like normal Stiles checked his phone to see lunch was nearly over. An awkward goodbye later, he was walking out of the room.

"Stay…"

And then he was back in. It seemed so impossible that she would say something like that to him that he actually looked around to make sure she meant him.

"Me stay? You want me to stay?"

She nodded happily while patting the spot beside her again. He couldn't get there fast enough. What followed could only be described as the most glorious moment of his life. Lydia Martin wanted him to stay. Lydia Martin was rubbing his cheek. Lydia Martin was cupping his face like she was about to kiss him. And then she had to say _his_ name.

"Please, Jackson…" she spoke dreamily.

"Aaaannnnnd we're done here," he grumbled out as she fell back.

He mentally scolded himself for thinking she do anything like that with him when Lydia's phone started jingling. He asked if she wanted him to answer it for her since she was in no shape to talk but the girl was completely conked out. It was a text from someone but for the life of him, Stiles couldn't get the message to pull up. There was a mass body freak out when halfway through asking how to work the phone, he'd found something incredibly bad.

Lydia had managed to catch the Alpha on video.

**ASDFASDFASDF**

**Done. Tell me what you think, mainly about that last part. I thought it was kind of awesome getting to mess around with Stiles again(I'm hoping I got his reactions down right).**


	15. The Tell Part 2

**Hi there. New chapter is here and some things are definitely going to be different.**

**Also did anybody see the S3 trailer MTV Official released? Just a few more days!**

**DISCLAIMER: No. Just no.**

**ASDFASDFASDF**

There are many methods people use to clear their minds and organize their thoughts.

Some chose to talk out their problems but Derek, while good with people, only really talked to a special few.

Some liked to look for a quiet place away from everything but Derek had grown up in a house full of rowdy werewolves and people and utterly despised complete silence unless he was tracking.

Some even sang to get mental clarity but Derek wasn't touching that one with a hundred foot pole.

No, the wolf-man's method was much simpler than that. He worked out. Now contrary to popular belief werewolves weren't _just_ naturally strong. Through hours and hours of rigorous training and exercise, a wolf could push beyond the innate power given but most were too lackadaisical to try, himself included before the fire. But after a particularly vivid dream of his family alive and well, he'd taken off without even a word to Laura. He ran for close to an hour before reaching a forested area miles from any civilians and proceeded to annihilate it. Hours later his sister found him flat on his back and barely able to move. There was no perfect clarity from the exhaustion but his mind was significantly clearer and was able to put things in perspective more easily. The Hale had been doing it ever since and the added benefits showed.

That is what a certain Hale Beta could be found doing at the moment. Derek couldn't exactly go to the local gym with Hunters running around town, that and the fact that he would get stares when he could lift for hours with no rest. So he was using his dilapidated home where he could. A part of the upstairs banister was sturdy enough to hold his weight and let him do hanging sit-ups. The doorway to their living room for pull-ups and there was plenty of open space to do push-ups. All the while, he was going over everything they'd learned from the Alpha's tactics to the victims to the revenge spiral found at every scene. It was in the middle of a one arm push-up when he heard it; the familiar and overly loud cocking of a shotgun.

Hunters had decided to come for a visit and by the smell of it, Kate was at the lead.

Despite years of wear and tear, Derek slipped into hiding at the back of the house without a single board squeaking. Moments later the front door was kicked in. They certainly weren't the quietest of werewolf hunters he'd ever met.

"No one home."

The wolf-man almost laughed at how relieved the guy sounded.

"Oh he's here alright. He's just not feeling particularly hospitable."

His blood boiled at the sound of fearlessness in Kate's voice. She burned the place to the ground then walked around in its ruins like she owned the place.

"Maybe he's out? Burying a bone in the backyard."

He actually snickered at that. It was a terrible joke but he couldn't help but be reminded of his mother's sense of humor.

"Really? A dog joke? You go in there and that's the best you got? If you want to provoke this one you'll have to do better than that."

"Oh, I got one. Too bad your sister bit it before she could have her first litter!" 'Dog Joke' shouted.

"Better. Keep 'em coming."

Derek bit his cheek until he tasted copper; ripping out 'Dog Jokes' throat would have been so satisfying at that moment but he was held back by the strangely empty approval from Kate.

"Too bad she howled like a bitch WHEN WE CUT HER IN HALF!" the scared one shouted.

His control snapped. 'Dog Joke' never stood a chance when he wandered around the corner. A palm thrust to the chest sent him flying into a wall near the front door and he was out like a light. The Hale jumped out into the open and perched himself on some higher ground. He eyed the two with his fangs protruding before letting out growling barks and leaping forward. Using the doorframe he'd used for pull-ups, he swung himself forward and slammed both feet into the scared one's chest. Like the other he went flying and landed hard on his back, though he managed to stay conscious. And then it was just him and Kate. He knew it was stupid to attack her, Kate had that air of confidence he remember from all those years ago, but he was too hyped up on rage to think straight. The wolf-man charged and ended up convulsing on the ground from a stun stick he'd been too blinded to see. The Hale expected some taunting, the Hunter's usual style of messing with people at her mercy, but to his shock and confusion, she walked over to the Hunter minion trying to get up and proceed to kick him across the face and into dreamland.

"Now that the moronic duo is out of the picture," Kate said jokingly before turning to him with a deadly expression on her face, "we can talk."

Derek waited until she was within range before taking another swipe at her. He had no intention of killing her, there were enough Hunters on his ass already, but he needed to take her down for a minute or so to get away; if she happened to be taken out of commission for some time well that was one less Hunter to worry about for a while. His plan however ended when she seemed to know he was coming and shocked him again.

"Do that again and I aim for the part that makes you a man. Now, I'm going to ask you once and only once. Did you give your Hale necklace to Scott?"

Instead of answering, the Hale wolf dragged his twitching body to a wall and propped himself up, his body fighting against him the whole way. Werewolves and electricity didn't mix. Kate didn't like his silence and kicked the overly sensitive nerves in his leg that sent a shooting pain all the way up his spine.

"I said: Did. You. Give. Your Hale necklace. To. Scott?"

When he wouldn't meet her eyes, the Hunter roared in anger and threw an old chair at the wall, shattering it into splinters.

"God Dammit, Derek! Do you realize what you've done?! If the Hunters find out about his connection to your family, an innocent boy is going to be used to get at you!"

"Like you care what happens to Scott! If I remember right you like using others to get what you want!" the wolf-man screamed, his eyes flashing despite the electricity still interrupting his ability to shift.

"I would never use him!"

While Derek glared right into her eyes on the outside, internally, he was shaken at the fact that Kate was actually telling the truth. And though he loathed to admit it, for just a moment, he saw_ his_ Kate again. That thought was swiftly buried to the darkest part of his mind. Standing before him was a monster in all its wicked glory and nothing of the one he thought he knew. She slowly lowered herself close to him, stun rod ready should he so much as twitch, and stared right into his eyes.

"I know you hate me and there are moments I can't stand you but I'm asking you to get that pendent back. Our lives are already fucked up by this. Scott doesn't deserve that fate and you know it."

If she only knew it was too late for that.

"Now that the personal stuff is out of the way I'll cut right to the chase and just say it. We didn't kill Laur-"

"DON'T YOU DARE SAY HER NAME! YOU DON'T GET THAT RIGHT!" Derek screamed.

A flash of pain crossed her face but it was gone in a second.

"As I was saying: We didn't kill your sister. Used her as bait? Yes. Killed her? No. So just tell us who the Alpha is so we can kill him and then we'll be on our merry way."

He remained stoic and silent.

A thinking look appeared on her features as she slowly stood up and backed away from him. At that moment, he knew that she knew the truth.

"Well, I guess that ends this meeting."

Kate turned her back for a second and Derek took his chance to run. Which turned out to be an excellent idea as the second she turned around, the Hunter unloaded nearly a full clip from a hidden oozie. The Hale only looked back once, completely confused by the female Hunter's strange behavior, before continuing to run; it would be a while before he could sneak back to his home.

0-0-0-0-0

"Hey, it's me again… Look I found something and I don't know what to do, okay? So if you could turn your phone on RIGHT NOW that would be great or else I'll kill you! You understand me? I'm gonna kill you! …And I'm too upset to come up with a witty description of how exactly I'm gonna do it but I'm just gonna do it, okay?! I'm gonna….GRRRR…Goodbye."

Stiles threw down his phone on his bed and slumped into his desk chair. This was too much for his Adderall addle mind to handle by himself. He may have been the smarter of the pair but Scott was his spring board. When the two couldn't figure out something, they would just throw ideas around and normally while his best friend never came up with the final answer, he would always manage to say something that would give Stiles the answer. And that was just the normal everyday stuff. This was a serious life-or-death situation and his spring board was AWOL with Allison. He loved the chick to no end, not romantically of course because for some reason the idea seemed really creepy to him, but right now she was a very unnecessary distraction. The twitchy teen had just put his head down to rest his throbbing mind when a sudden knock at his door had him jerking up and nearly falling out of his seat.

Thankfully, it was just his dad and not the monstrosity he'd seen on the video from Lydia's swiped phone a hundred times.

"Please tell me I'm gonna hear good news at this Parent/Teacher thing tonight?"

"That depends on how you define good news."

Was it just him or was he using the 'definition' thing too much lately?

"I define it as you getting straight A's with no behavioral issues."

Harris the Sadist alone was going to shatter those chances into oblivion. Stiles told his dad he might want to rethink his definition and the older Stilinski told him they would be having another talk when he got home. Those weren't the exact words used but the younger male saw the subtext of his words. Subtext was a Stilinski male's bread and butter.

Once his dad had left, Stiles flipped his seat around the right way and started thinking about what he was supposed to do. He grabbed Lydia's phone and watched the video again, pausing it when he got a slightly blurred closed up of the Alpha's ugly mug. It was insane that Lydia actually caught the thing on her cell of all things but what could they do with it? Could Scott just magically tell who it was since it was his Alpha or should he just delete the evidence and somehow sneak the device back into its owner's room?

"Come one, Scott, where the hell are you?" he asked out loud with an annoyed sigh.

What felt like hours but was really only ten minutes passed before Stiles just decided to say 'Screw it' and grabbed Lydia's phone and clicked the delete button. There was a large amount of hesitation when the 'Are you sure?' popped up. If he did this, the first, real clue they might have as to who the Alpha would be gone. The spaz was about to hit 'Yes' when a completely nutbar idea hit him.

"No. No, no, no. I'm not calling him. I. Am. Not. Calling. Him. He'd rip out my throat for calling him. I'm not gonna do it and that's final."

Five minutes later Derek's voicemail was starting.

"Derek, hey…this is Stiles…you probably already knew that from me programing mine and Scott's numbers into your phone, your welcome by the way… Shit… Look, Lydia, the girl from the video store, she caught the Alpha on her camera phone and Scott has his damn phone turned off and I just…I don't know what to do. Just call me or something."

The teen put down his cell and quickly left his room before he did anything stupid or rash. He needed something to occupy his scattered attention and, as luck would have it, his dad in a moment of absent mindedness left some files laid out in his office. This only happened when he went digging through the cases his 'inner cop' deemed unfinished. To his surprise, his dad was looking at the case file from the Hale House Fire and the boy knew he'd just found his distraction until Scott or Derek decided answered him; personally, he was hoping for his best friend before Sir Broods-a lot who'd taken to threatening him every time they met. Grabbing the manila folder, couldn't take too much or his dad would notice, and headed back to his room.

Before Stiles knew it a couple of hours had past and he was still looking at the same report sheets. In that time, he'd come to believe his dad really deserved his title as Sheriff. Despite the overwhelming evidence that pointed to a simple 'Electrical Malfunction', his old man still saw or felt something was off and pushed the possibility of arson. Totally engrossed by the small but weighted list of inconsistencies, the ADHD teen never noticed his window sliding open or the supernaturally silent thump of two-hundred and some odd pounds of muscle hitting his floor.

"Is there a reason you're looking into my family's 'accident' reports?"

Stiles launched himself back in surprise straight into the wall which collided with the back of his head. Some tumbling followed and eventually the teen was sprawled out on the floor rubbing the back of his head. He managed to sit himself upright and looked up, one eye squinted in pain, to see the Broodinator staring at him with an eyebrow raised high.

"Don't look at me in that tone of voice. Not my fault you should be walking around with a damn cowbell hanging around your neck. And why didn't you just knock?"

Derek's eyebrow seemed to rise even further and Stiles got the message.

"Right, werewolf mystique thing, got it."

Stiles continued to rub his head as he climbed into his desk chair and slid back to his desk. Without another word, he tossed the phone over his shoulder before turning back to his bed and started gathering up all the papers. The folder would need to be back in his dad's office before he returned. Once Stiles made sure everything was back the way it was, he headed back to his room to find Derek still staring at the phone.

"Get anything from it?"

"Yes."

The spaz's eyes bugged out.

"What?! Really?! I mean…can you like tell who it is?"

"No."

"Then what the hell did you figure out?!"

Captain Moody was quiet for a bit before looking up from the phone.

"An Alpha's full transformation is subjective and determined by the werewolf. My sister's was the form you found her in, a giant wolf, one of the purest a werewolf can be. This Alpha however…he's been corrupted beyond anything I've ever seen. Greed, vengeance, it could be any number of things that drive him but this and the fact that he seems to be picking out his victims at least points in the general direction of a motive."

"So I guess the million dollar question is: What do we do now?"

It was pure luck that he caught the device an inch before it smashed into his face. He gaped at the older male in shock as he headed for the window.

"Delete the video and give it back to her at school tomorrow."

Easier said than done.

"Uh…about that…"

Derek froze and slowly turned towards him with menacing look that would make prison hardened criminals quake in their jumpsuits; suffice to say Stiles was a couple seconds away from pissing himself.

"You stole it, didn't you?"

Why did that sound more like a statement than a question?

"I prefer the term temporarily misappropriated."

In the blink of an eye, the phone was being snatched from his hand and Derek's feet were disappearing out the window.

"Well that went better than expected," the teen breathed out with a sigh of relief.

0-0-0-0-0

"Hey, Scott it's me again. I'm just calling to make sure everything is okay. You were supposed to be here an hour ago. Maybe you forgot but whatever it just give me a call and let me know everything is okay. Alright, thanks."

Alan Deaton pocketed his phone and took a deep breath to calm his worries, hoping against hope that Scott wasn't getting into more trouble than he already had on his plate.

The vet knew very well of his young assistant's supernatural condition, had from a couple of days after the police had started looking for Laura Hale's body. Deaton had seen the connection between Scott McCall and animals from the first time he met the boy with Thor. He became suspicious when that connection shifted into something greater and was proven correct when he noticed a subtle change in demeanor when he was around certain animals. Though Scott probably hadn't figured it out yet, he was unconsciously sensing the sick, sometimes fatal illnesses of the animals. It was frustrating to see the normally easy-going young man upset yet unable to tell him why. The rules he and his colleagues followed were very strict and prohibited revealing themselves unless approached or absolutely necessary.

Alan was pulled from his thoughts by a familiar jingling bell. To his surprise, he saw Jack Stilinski reflection in glass of a fire emergency case. By the look on his face, the Sheriff was hitting the wall most law enforcement did when it came to cases involving the supernatural.

"Sheriff Stilinski."

"Listen, I hate to bother ya…but I'm having a bitch of a time getting a consensus on what this is we're dealing with…"

Deaton wasn't surprised. Despite how obvious some supernaturals could be, there was still the fact that to a person not in-the-know what they were seeing was impossible.

"I'm really flattered you've come to me for help but like I said before: I'm no expert."

"But you were pretty certain the other day about our attacker being a mountain lion?"

The vet agreed but he was swiftly growing suspicious.

"Let me show you something…"

What followed once again made Deaton curse the rules. Contrary to what some around the town believed, the Sheriff was impeccably good at his job. He looked everywhere for information and manage to find things others didn't or overlooked. The officer had achieved what few others had and found photographic proof of a supernatural being that was currently terrorizing the area. It was obvious were Stiles inherited his abilities from. He cursed because his 'group' limited their ranks to family only and individuals with talent such as the Stilinskis were forbidden from being asked to join.

"I see what you mean," the vet answered in 'confusion' as he glanced over the photo of human where an animal had once been.

"I've never seen a mountain lion do that," the Sheriff said quietly, confusion, frustration and worry leaking into his tone.

"Can't say I have either. You've got a real problem here."

Deaton listened as the other man told him his instincts were pushing him towards the werewolf in the picture being a bear but he knew the man way lying. Jack Stilinski knew there was something different about what was going on; something otherworldly that he couldn't explain and therefore couldn't find what he needed to solve the case. The vet had always saw himself as a man of immense will power, he'd stood in the presence of beings capable of destroying him in seconds without so much as flinching but the temptation to tell the man before him the truth was too much. He needed a way out before he let something slip he was bound by blood not to. His prayers were answered when a particularly sick Doberman, one he'd nearly missed had it not been for Scott, started barking up a storm.

"Look like I said you really need an expert here. My advice, if it's allowed, talk to Scott McCall. That young man has a wealth of knowledge with animals, predators included, that exceeds my own. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a sick Doberman that needs attending to."

Alan was headed for the back room when the Sheriff called out to him one last time.

"No other ideas?"

"I'm sorry I can't be of more help," the vet answered in his normally calm demeanor.

"It's okay. Thanks for humoring me again."

He just smiled and nodded amicably before disappearing into the back.

0-0-0-0-0

This had been literally one of the greatest days of Allison's life.

The only other one that compared was the day that she became nationally ranked for archery, not so much for getting ranked but for the look of beaming pride on her parents' faces.

She'd never connected with anyone like this before, especially a boy.

They had spent hours just wandering around the preserve and talking and it was amazing beyond words. Allison learned dozens of new things about Scott McCall and craved to learn even more. Even more amazing was the fact that he never hesitated once when she asked something. Not even when she finally broke down and asked about two particular people she knew affected him in a bad way. Once the brunette had the full story of the 'Ryan Incident', she found that she had absolutely no sympathy for the bastard. Stiles was insane, funny and a million other quirky things and to twist things so that he believed _he_ was reason his mom was sick was just cruel. It also made her want to borrow some of Lydia's heels to crush certain unmentionables which was a little shocking for a 'goody-goody' like her. Then there was Maxwell McCall. It was strange how casually he talked about his dad just deciding to up and leave him and his mom with the way he had acted in the cafeteria that day. She tried to imagine her own dad leaving, even when he had an actual reason, and felt her windpipe clogging up as if she was about to cry. After taking a moment to clear out her throat, she asked how he managed to deal with that all those years ago.

"_I didn't at first. I just sort of shutdown; wouldn't talk to anyone but my mom and just sort of went through the motions for a month or so. Stiles used to say my eyes looked completely blank."_

The Argent was horrified at the idea of the beautiful brown eyes she'd come to love devoid of their usual brightness. Once she promised herself to never allow that to happen again, the girl asked what brought him back and a bright smile eased its way across his face.

"_I met Derek Hale."_

Scott spent the next hour telling her about all the things the two did together; Allison filed away all the blackmail material she could when he started talking about Derek's girlfriend AKA her aunt.

All too soon the sun had set and the two started making their way back to her car. The temperature had dropped considerably since dusk so the blast of heat when she turned on the vehicle was a relief.

"So…being completely honest, this was kind of the perfect birthday."

There was no 'kind of' at all. This was a birthday she would remember for the rest of her life.

"Good," Scott replied, hitting her with that smile again. "I'd know if you were lying anyways."

"Oh really?" she challenged.

He explained that she had a 'tell', which she totally didn't, before sliding across the tip of her eyebrow; something that got her hormones running more than they really should. She was about to verbally deny that she did anything to give away that she was lying when, to her shock, Allison had to force her hand not to go right where he said it would. Him and his stupid ability to read her.

"Let's see if you can figure out if I'm lying now," she challenged again while taking ahold of his hand and giving it a chaste kiss. "I wish that my parents weren't coming home from the Teacher Conferences so I could spend the rest of the day with you."

"Rest of the day?" he breathed out, once again sounding as if he was the lucky one.

"Well…the rest of the night."

It was stunning and a little embarrassing how much she wasn't just kidding. Her parents would be horrified and Kate would tease her endlessly for 'just giving it up' but, when it came to Scott McCall, it just didn't feel wrong. Everything, and she did mean _everything_, felt right with him no matter how much she couldn't explain it. The girl guessed that was what happened when someone was in love.

"Oh God! The Parent/Teacher Conferences! I'm supposed to be there! Aahhh…I've got like below a C on everything."

Scott was a dead man walking. More than likely, the Lahey's already had his plot dug up and a headstone waiting for his exact moment of death. Werewolf healing was in no way going to save him from the most feared being on the planet; scarier than the Alpha and more deadly than all of the Hunters combined. His mom. Even worse than all that? The fact that she was going to more worried than she already was about him. The teen hated causing his mother pain and that was all he seemed to be able to do lately. But telling her about his new situation wasn't really an option he was willing to risk. His greatest fear should have been the danger she would be in for knowing but it wasn't. What truly terrified the McCall more than anything was the idea of his mom being afraid of him; to look at him and only see the monster within. A train of nightmares and other horrible images was derailed by Allison squeezing his hand and silently conveying that everything would be okay with just her eyes. His body slowly relaxed and all the bad things were bleached from his mind for the moment.

Not even five seconds after his angel parked the car at their school, his mom burst out of a door while talking angrily into her phone.

"Your mom?" Allison asked, sounding as freaked as he was.

"Yeah, I'm-I'm dead," he replied while lowering himself in the seat, praying that she wouldn't notice them.

"Oh God, she's heading for my parents!"

And now they were both dead.

"It's time to face the music, isn't it?"

"If by that you mean you getting grounded while your dad fills me with bullet holes, then yes, yes it is."

The two slowly climbed out of the car and almost supernaturally, both of their parents seemed to zero in on their presence. What was sure to be a very painful conversation was interrupted by a woman's scream. Soon more screaming follow as people began to panic and scramble for safety from something. While the adults were distracted, Scott took a whiff of the air and to his horror the distinct smell of predator filled the air. The werewolf thought it might have been the Alpha but something wasn't quite right. A low growl reached his ears and with everyone distracted, he focused until his eyes glowed and his vision was enhanced. He managed to catch a glimpse of something on all fours but his focus was shattered by a blaring horn. Looking around, Scott saw Allison backing away in fear of what was going on and right into the path of terrified driver. Uncaring if the Hunters saw him, he shot off and saved her a mere foot before the car slammed into her. Mrs. Argent came running over as he checked over Allison to make sure she was okay. The young wolf looked up just in time to see the Sheriff getting hit by another reckless driver and Mr. Argent running over to check on him. The Sheriff waved him off, which he was hoping meant that he would live, while pulling up his pants leg and unholstering a gun he had hidden.

Scott once again tried to focus and find whatever was running around until suddenly the sound of gunfire filled the air. Everyone froze in place as Mr. Argent slowly lowered his gun before slowly moving towards what he had shot. To the amazement of everyone, a mountain lion laid completely limp and unmoving on the asphalt. The werewolf actually _felt_ the relief the people of Beacon Hills had that the perpetrator of the animal attacks was dead. But he knew what had really just happened and, by the looks of it, so did Allison's father.

The Alpha had set this up and had now thrown suspicion off himself completely.

0-0-0-0-0

**Sorry for the delay. As stupid as it is I've been off work since last Friday but spent the whole time being put to work by an old man who really shouldn't be working so damn hard because of heart problems AKA my grandfather. Anyways hopefully I'll be able to put the next one out quicker.**

**So what do ya'll think of the little changes I made?**


	16. Heart Monitor Part 1

**So how did ya'll enjoy the first two episodes of the season?**

**DISCLAIMER: Nay to ownage.**

**ASDFASDFASDF**

"Yes, Mom, I got them… Yes, I made sure to get the ones with strawberry cream filling… I'm walking out of the door and staring right at them. I'll see you in the morning, bye!"

Derek chuckled quietly to himself from atop a multi-level parking garage where he'd been lounging for the last half hour or so, waiting for Scott to get done grocery shopping.

The most heinous crime one could commit in the McCall residence was denying Melissa McCall her favorite breakfast pastry.

With practiced easy, the werewolf jumped to his feet and casually walked along the ledge of the garage as if he wasn't a mere inch from falling ten stories. His eyes never left his little brother as he crossed the street and entered the building without a care in the world. That was about to change. After the incident with the mountain lion at the school, Scott had hunted him down and begged him to start teaching him how to control the wolf better. Derek bluntly told him to go home. The younger wolf tried to rage at him until the older male knocked him on his ass and explained that his emotional distress was making him even more unstable. His old home gained a few new holes in the floor before Scott managed to calm himself. A couple of days had passed since then and now it was time to start the learning process and maybe having a little fun scaring the shit out of the younger wolf. But mostly learning.

Calmly, he stepped off the edge and dropped to the lip outside the third floor. It was greatly annoying that Scott didn't so much as unconsciously feel his presence even though he was only feet away. That would be something else to work on. Derek rolled his eyes when Scott realized he was on the wrong floor and leapt up another level. This time the boy ventured further into the level and the Hale decided it was time to start their first lesson. Running away. Some would call it cowardly but there was a difference between running from a problem completely and running from a life-or-death situation to fight another day. He crept slowly behind the cars until the only thing separating them was an SUV. A bit of luck was on his side as a rogue bottle of milk rolled right to him. The wolf-man extended his claws and rolled it back, making sure to leave obvious cuts to up the fear factor. There was a sudden intake of breath from his little brother and he could practically hear the muscles in his body tightening up. A low grumbling growl later and a game of Cat-and-Mouse was under way. Derek only went at half speed as to not let himself be completely shown and because Scott's lack of control denied him the ability to shift and drop to all-fours. The boy tried to hide behind one of the many vehicles lining the walls but it was all for not as his heart was pumping so loud it may as well been hooked up to a sound system.

Then something happened that brought a slight smile to his face.

The once silent parking garage was now filled with the blaring noise of multiple car alarms that blocked out the boy's rapid heartbeat and gasping breaths.

However, his pride in his brother's resourcefulness was short lived as the piercing sound of a ringtone hit his ears. In a moment of annoyance, Derek may have been at bit too rough when he yanked the smaller male into the air and slammed him into the hood of the car he was hiding behind but Scott needed to see that it was the little things that could get someone killed.

"You're dead," he seethed before jumping off the hood and walking away.

His little brother sputtered for a moment before getting off the car himself and started chasing after him.

"What the hell was that?!"

"I told you I'd train you, I didn't say when."

"You scared the crap out of me!"

An Alpha was scarier.

"Not yet."

"Okay. Well, I was fast, right?"

By human standards.

"Not fast enough."

"But the car alarm thing, that was smart. Right?"

That it was.

"Until your phone rang."

Scott sputtered a bit again before everything started bursting out of him. His lack of control over the shift, the guilt he felt for letting the Sheriff get hurt and his inability to prevent bad things from happening around him.

While Derek had never had trouble with the shift except during the full moon, he knew all too well about feeling guilty for letting people he held dear get hurt and being unable to stop terrible situations from happening. He tried to explain that there was a difference between those born to the life and those who were bitten. Time they really didn't have was needed for Scott to learn how to completely use his abilities. Then he let loose a bomb that he was sure the younger werewolf didn't want to hear. The wolf-man wasn't entirely sure he could teach his little brother, not through lack of talent but because Scott had a distraction with deadly consequences.

"What do I have to do?!" Scott asked desperately.

"You have to get rid of distractions," the Hale answered before taking Scott's phone and showing him exactly who called. "You see this? This is why I caught you. You want me to be able to teach you, get rid of her."

Scott tried to accuse him of it being just about Allison's family and on some level that was probably true but that wasn't all of it. The real reason he was being an adamant was because he wouldn't be able to take Scott dying. Derek had lost too many people already. With a grand total of three important connections left, each one held more value than even his own life and he was willing to play the part of asshole to make sure they stayed above ground. That said, to take away something that could prove life threatening, he chucked the plastic cellular device at the wall behind him; the wolf-man would leave some cash for Mrs. McCall when she replaced it. He watched as shock turned to anger while the sound of it shattering filled the air.

"You getting angry? That's one of your first lessons. You want to learn how to control this? Not just the little things with your eyes and claws but the full shift? You do it through anger, by tapping into a primal animal rage and you can't do that with her around!"

"I can get angry," the younger wolf said in a low tone, his eyes seething but he was still holding back.

"Not angry enough! This is the only way that I can teach you. Now, can you stay away from her?! At least until after the full moon?!"

"If-If that what it takes-"

"DO YOU WANT TO LIVE?! Because seriously, Scott, I don't think I can lose someone else! Not after Laura!"

Scott felt an overwhelming wave of pain from the older wolf wash over him and started to understand that Derek wasn't just saying all of this just to get him away from Allison. Derek feared for his life more than anything else and he knew the only way to put him at ease was to stay away from his angel. How hard could that be?

It proved impossibly hard.

After promising to stay away from the Argent and finally finding his mom's car, Scott promised himself that he would only stop by Allison's house to tell her that his phone was broken and that he would be hard to reach until he could get a new one. That promise was broken as soon as he climbed into her window, she was grounded from seeing him so no front door, and she dragged him onto the bed. There was some resistance in the beginning but then she was straddling and kissing him and everything became futile. To his shock and inner hormonal teenage boy's joy, things escalated quickly and soon his shirt was off while his angel was completely bare under a very thin tank top. Suddenly, there was a knock at door and the two began to scramble over the bed before Scott ended up in the closet. It turned out to be Kate which was loads better than Mr. Argent.

"What's up?" Kate asked casually.

"Nothing! Just doing some homework…sending some emails…"

"E-mailing our favorite boy?"

"No… I'm e-mailing PETA about how my wingnut father gunned down an innocent mountain lion in the school parking lot."

Scott had to bite his lip to keep from laughing and giving away his hiding spot.

"And that wouldn't have anything to do with the fact that your grounded and you can't see Scott?"

Even if she was a Hunter, the werewolf would never get tired of hearing Kate's special brand of sass live and in person again.

"I'm not gonna be one of those whiny teenagers who looks at her father and says: I hate you and I wish you were dead."

"But…"

"But… I hate him and I wish he was dead!"

He just kind of soaked it in as the two laughed while Kate joked about Allison finally sound like a 'normal, angry teenager'. If things had been different, if werewolves never existed, this was something he could have every day. Being around Allison, Derek and Kate with no fear of everyone trying to kill each other or losing someone because of a secret; Peter and the rest of the Hales might not have been lost to the fire as well. Everything would have been perfect for him. But he knew it was pipe dream as he listened to Kate help his girl with a history assignment about something to do with her family. It didn't take a genius to figure out what 'The Beast of Gevaudan' was. The 'legend' the older woman was talking about was probably more along the lines of the start of the Argent Hunter line. The part that made things worse was how engrossed Allison sounded by all of it. It may not be any time soon but, eventually, she would know what was going on. Kate wished her good luck and started leaving the room.

"Oh and by the way," Kate spoke as she turned back around and knocked on the closet door. "Next, don't park right across the street, Scott. Love ya."

"Will do, Kate. Love you too," Scott answered, blushing at being caught by doing something so obvious.

Though it was ten times harder than he original thought, the Beta figured it was time to go after that and soon he was climbing out the window. Just before sliding himself over the edge, the teen looked back to see Allison just smiling at him. How was he supposed to get by without being able to be around her? Even his inner wolf was depressed by the idea of separation. But he also knew it was a necessary evil to learn control and keep the ones he loved safe. The bushes ruffled quietly where he landed and he couldn't help but take one last look towards Allison. She waved goodbye, still smiling his way, before disappearing from sight. It took a lot to convince himself as he was walking away that this was only temporary. Scott was pulled from his mental pep talk by something rustling leaves in a completely blacked out area behind the Argent home. He took a moment to focus his senses and immediately picked up a werewolf. There was an internal spaz attack at being caught by Derek at Allison's house.

"Derek? I-I know I said I'd stay away from her, and I promise this is it, but you broke my phone. I had to at least tell her why I wasn't answering. That's all."

Silence was his answer besides the sound of more crunching leaves. Suddenly, Scott was very aware that Derek wasn't the one hiding in the shadows. A flash of red only proved this more and he started sprinting frantically for his mom's car. Of course, he'd finally remember to lock the stupid doors on a night he was being chased by the Alpha. Fumbling with his keys for a moment, the Alpha's snarls were basically right on top of him when he finally got the door open and climbed in. It wasn't exactly the best place to take shelter but the sound of shattering glass or tearing metal would make the monster think twice about drawing attention right across the street from a family of Hunters. The Beta was positive he stopped breathing as the bigger wolf stalked around the car. Just as the McCall thought his life was about to end, the Alpha halted at his door and proceeded to slowly draw a spiral in the water covering his window. In the blink of an eye, the Alpha was gone but an unbelievable fear was still gripping at him. Stiles' dad would murder him and then take his license away if he saw how fast he'd gotten home. He knew it was pointless but the minute he stepped inside his house the young werewolf rushed around in every direction, locking everything in sight. Scott then made a mad dash for his room, locking the door behind him before shutting the window and peeking nervously through the blinds.

The rattled teen nearly jumped out of his skin when he flicked on a lamp and saw Derek just sitting in a chair in the corner.

"You seriously need to stop doing that!"

He knew that was how Derek was but it was really starting to destroy his nerves being scared as hell and then him just appearing out of nowhere.

"So what happened? He talk to you?" Derek asked in a much too casual voice.

"Yeah, we had a nice little conversation about the weather… No! He didn't talk!"

"Well, did you get anything off of him? An impression?"

Scott was sure his face was a picture of confusion which seemed to frustrate the older wolf.

"Remember your other senses are heightened. Communication doesn't have to be spoken. What kind of feeling did you get from him?"

Scott took a second to look back on what had happened. Getting past the sheer terror was difficult but he eventually did and ended up more confused than before.

"A-Anger…"

"Focused on you?"

He shook his head and tried to explain what he remembered. The boy had seen anger pointed at someone else but to feel the hateful radiance of it was a whole other oddity. Finding the right words was hard without sounding almost entirely vague. Then there was the other feeling he got that was actually pointed at him. The only way to describe it was peace. Like Scott put the Alpha at ease in some way. The smaller male never got to tell Derek that part as he tensed up when he mentioned that the Alpha's anger peaking when it was tracing the spiral.

"Wait, the what? What'd you just say?"

"He drew this spiral o-on the window of the car. In the condensation, ya know?"

The teen wolf grew worried as a look of recognition crossed Derek's face. He tried to ask if he knew what it meant but his brother waved it off and brushed passed him on his way to the door. It could have been any number of reasons but something seemed to snap inside him and he grabbed at the older wolf's arm and halted his exit.

"Wait a second! You can't hide stuff like this from me. I'm a part of this too. Family doesn't keep things like this from each other."

His agitation increased when there was an uptick in Derek's heartbeat when he said there was no meaning and to go do his homework.

"You buried Laura under a spiral… What does it mean?"

It scared him how serious Derek sounded when he said, "You don't want to know."

The wolf-man was about to leave but seemed to hesitate at the last second.

"There something else…"

0-0-0-0-0

Scott felt completely naked the next morning at school, the familiar weight of his Hale necklace missing and making him more uneasy than he already was. Unsurprisingly, the young wolf hadn't come up with any ideas on how to stay away from his girlfriend. Winging it like always was the only option so far but he'd taken to repeating the mantra 'stay away from Allison' over and over again in the hopes that something would come to him. The universe wasn't feeling particularly hospitably that morning so he was there all of five minutes before nearly running straight into his angel. He did a swift one-eighty and headed the other way, only to catch Jackson, the one person who knew something was wrong with him and said he would find out what it was straight to his face, as he was walking out of a classroom. The mantra became 'stay away from Jackson' as he took off down another hallway.

"OH, COME ON!" he shouted as he ran away from Lydia, who wouldn't hesitate to rat him out to Allison, called out to him.

Once he'd finally managed to lose sight of everyone he shouldn't be around, Scott headed for his first class of the day. What the werewolf failed to remember was the fact that he shared this class with Stiles who hadn't spoken to since the night his dad got hurt. His best friend didn't even so much as look at him as he walked by to sit in the seat behind him.

"Still not talking to me?" he asked quietly, hoping for some kind of reaction.

His answer was silence.

"Can you at least tell me if your dad is okay? I mean, it's just a bruise, right? Some soft tissue damage? No-Nothing that big…"

More silence.

"You know I feel really bad about it, right?"

An image of Stiles' head exploding from lack of talking appeared in his mind and he figured he had to do something because with the way his luck was going it might actually happen. It may have been at the expense of his brother but it was for a good cause.

"What if I told you I'm trying to figure this whole thing out…and I went to Derek for help?"

Stiles started twitching this way and that before he finally broke.

"If I was talking to you I'd say you're an idiot for trusting him. But obviously I'm not talking to you."

Scott kind of saw his best friend ripping on Derek coming but at least he talked to him if only for a moment. The bell finally rang for the start of class and everyone began getting out things to take notes. To the shaggy haired boy's surprise, his best friend whipped around and told him to start talking. He smiled despite using Stiles' curiosity against him. It was a demanding force that wouldn't stop until it was satisfied. He didn't actually get to tell him anything right away because of class but the second the bell rang, Stiles was hounding him with questions.

"Wha-He wants you to tap into your animal side and get angry? Alright, well correct me if I'm wrong but every time you do that you try to kill someone…and that someone is normally me."

"That was only once."

Stiles glared hard at him.

"Right, not helping."

"So did he actually tell you how he was going to help you or was he his usual cryptic self?" Stiles asked, secure in the fact that Mr. Tall-and-Broody hadn't explained a thing. This was proven true when Scott just looked at him and stayed quiet. Against his better judgment and the part that still wanted to hit him, the spaz decided he needed to help; if not for Scott then for keeping his head firmly attached to his shoulders because they both knew the young werewolf would eventually go after him again. The universe totally hated them. Once he finally weaseled out when Derek was coming to get him to train, Stiles mind immediately went to overdrive.

"That gives me until the end of the day."

"To do what?"

"To teach you myself."

He used his next two classes to brainstorm ideas but nothing came to him until his attention span hit zero and his mind began to wander right before lunch. It was during this wandering that his eyes landed on some of the girl's track team practicing for the spring. Dots started to connect in his mind which led to the heart rate monitor the Coach used when he was exercising. So far every time Scott had wolf out against his will it had been during high stress moments. Maybe keeping him calm under pressure was the key. But how was he supposed to cause his heart rate to go up on command? His answer came in the form of Greenburg hitting him in the head with a paper ball. Free period was going to be fun but first he needed food.

Stiles was decidedly less angry when he sat down with his friend, who was currently 'hiding' behind a book while taking quick glances over where Allison and Lydia were talking.

"I think the book is making it more obvious! Besides she's reading anyway."

It was a wonder Scott survived the days he hadn't talked to him.

"So you come up with a plan yet?"

Oh, yes, he did. If it worked that is.

"I think so."

"Does that mean you don't hate me now?"

That was a very good question. Was he mad? Yes. Did he hate Scott? Not really especially if he agreed to the plan. But Scott deserved the guilt he was feeling at the moment so he didn't feel the need to say that.

"No, but your crap has infiltrated my life so now I have to do something about it. Plus I'm definitely a better Yoda then Derek."

"Wait, wouldn't you be like Obi Wan? You know since Derek is older than us and has more experience and Yoda is ancient and one of the greatest Jedi ever?"

And now Stiles hated him again.

"Alright, you know what? I definitely still hate you!" he said before laughing maniacally and stealing back his book and leaving him to the shark that was Allison. It was very satisfying.

He used what was left of lunch to 'break into', and by that he meant opening Coach's unlocked door, and borrowing a monitor belt, swiping the man's phone and grabbing a bag of lacrosse balls the Coach left out in case any of them felt like practicing.

Strangely, there were no other players around when they got to the field which made thing a whole hell of a lot easier since his idea could technically get him suspended or at least a call to their parents and he did not want to be on the receiving end of that conversation.

"Ok, now put this on," he commanded holding out the monitor.

"Isn't this one of the heart monitors for the track team?" Scott asked sounding utterly confused.

"Yeah, I borrowed it."

"Stole it."

God, why was everyone being so nitpicky about taking something with the full intention of returning it?

"Temporarily misappropriated. Coach uses it to monitor his heart rate with his phone while he jogs. You're going to wear it for the rest of the day."

"Isn't that Coach's phone?" his friend asked like he'd just stole a gold bar from Fort Knox.

"That I stole."

Kind of. He was still on the fence whether or not he was giving it back; it was a really nice phone.

"Why?"

"Alright, well your heart rate goes up when you go wolf, right? When you're playing lacrosse, when you're with Allison, whenever you get angry, maybe learning to control it is tied to controlling your heart rate."

"Like the Incredible Hulk."

Had Stiles not still been pissed at him, he would have told Scott how proud he was of him making that comparison. But the jeep owner wasn't so he just waved it off with dry sarcastism. After the dingus finally put on the belt, Stiles explained his idea before taking a giant roll of duct tape he kept in his car for emergencies and bound the werewolf's hands behind his back. As he backed away with his crosse and bag of projectiles, the spaz told him to focus on keeping his heart calm. Scott spoke of his growing issues with the plan but it was ignored in favor of loading up his net and letting the ball fly. The sound of the ball smacking his friend and the groan that followed was ten times more satisfying than leaving Scott to run from Allison as did every one that followed. Of course, all good things must come to an end, as two shots in quick succession had the werewolf falling to the ground, screaming in pain. His supernatural strength snapped the 'fabric of the universe' while their coach's phone beeped rapidly. It took a moment before the beeping slowed and Scott's animalistic growls of suppressed rage died down. Once he felt his life wasn't completely in danger, Stiles rushed over to his friend.

"Scott? You started to change…"

"From anger…" Scott breathed out in gasps. "But it was more than that. It's like…the angrier I got…the stronger I felt…"

"So it is anger then. Derek's right."

Just saying that left a bad taste in Stiles mouth and made a promise to wash his mouth out with bleach.

"I can't be around Allison…"

"Just because she make you happy?"

Even if he was mad at the guy, which was almost gone after that little exercise, Stiles felt that it was utter bullshit if happiness could deny a werewolf control.

"No…because she makes me weak…"

**ASDFASDFASDF**

**Well that's finally finished. Sorry for the long delay again. I normally take a day or two after a chapter to do nothing then start up again but around here lately I do that and somehow end up losing another 3-4 days. It kind of sucks for me and I know you guys probably don't like it. Here's hoping the next one will be out sooner but please don't get mad if it doesn't.**

**Reviews would be nice.**

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